The United States has called on Pakistan to help India find the terrorists suspected to have perpetrated the recent Pahalgam terror attack. US Vice President JD Vance, who was in India when the April 22 attack took place, made the call for cooperation while warning against increased regional conflict. Our hope here is that India reacts to this terrorist attack in a manner that doesn’t spill over into a wider regional conflict,” Vance told Fox News in an interview.
He continued, “And we hope, frankly, that Pakistan, to the extent that they’re responsible, cooperates with India to ensure that the terrorists sometimes operating on their soil are tracked down and dealt with.” But with Pakistan’s history, that is unlikely to happen.
Pakistan Rejects Allegations, Demands Impartial Inquiry
India has blamed the Pahalgam massacre, in which 26—predominantly tourists—were killed, on Pakistan-based militants. Three suspects have been named by investigators: two Pakistani citizens and one from Kashmir. Security officials have traced the mastermind, Hashim Musa, to Pakistan’s Para Forces.
Despite increasing evidence, Islamabad has refused the accusations and instead called for a “neutral” inquiry. This is an imitation of Pakistan’s established record of denying its participation in terror attacks conducted on Indian territory.
Pakistan’s Recognition of Historic Extremism
Though Islamabad still denies present government involvement, its former leadership has publicly acknowledged support for extremist groups in the past, indicating Islamabad has a history of favoring such elements. Former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari confirmed Pakistan’s history of misrepresentation, saying, “As far as what the defence minister said, I don’t think it is a secret that Pakistan has a past… As a result, we have suffered, Pakistan has suffered.”
Bhutto emphasized the country’s alleged internal changes, hinting that Pakistan had learned its lesson from past mistakes. The allusion was to Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif publicly acknowledging Pakistan’s role in equipping and supporting militants for decades.
“We have been doing this dirty work for the United States for some three decades,” Asif told a different interview. “That was a mistake, and we paid the price for it.
He continued to accuse the West of scapegoating Pakistan, despite its long-standing collaboration during the Cold War and post-9/11 wars.
Flip-Flop on 26/11 Mumbai Attacks
Pakistan initially denied that Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist from the 2008 Mumbai attacks who survived, was a Pakistani citizen. But in January 2009, a Dawn report confirmed Kasab’s nationality through internal investigations.
The turnaround occurred barely days after then-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had implicated Pakistan’s official agencies in the attacks. “The official organs of the government of Pakistan were involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks,” said Singh.
Even ex-Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif admitted Pakistan had militant groups, wondering why “non-state actors” could freely move to India to perpetrate wholesale killings.
Admission of Kargil War Involvement
Pakistan has also persistently denied that its military had any role to play in the 1999 Kargil war. In the beginning, Islamabad blamed Kashmiri militants as infiltrators. Former Army chief Pervez Musharraf has confessed to Pakistani involvement in his book In The Line of Fire.
In 2023, the present Army chief General Asim Munir publicly confirmed military participation in the Kargil War for the first time, declaring: “Whether Pak-India wars of 1948, 1965, 1971 and Kargil or Siachen conflict, thousands of martyrs sacrificed their lives for security and honour of the country.”
Denial of Osama Bin Laden’s Presence in Pakistan
Another instance of Pakistan’s credibility problem is how it responded to the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad back in 2011. The government denied it had any awareness of the presence of bin Laden in the cantonment town.
Then-Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at the time said to The Guardian, “There is no complicity. I think it’s an intelligence failure from all over the world.” He also dismissed claims that there were elements within the military who were aware of bin Laden’s hideout.
The pattern of repeated denial followed by grudging admissions erodes US expectations of genuine cooperation between Pakistan and India in the war against terror. From Kasab to Kargil, Islamabad’s credibility has never been trusted. With such precedents, Indian expectations of cooperative action from Pakistan on the Pahalgam terror attack can be misplaced.
