Hyderabad: Terming Kashmir issue as a tragedy, Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on Tuesday night said that the plight of the Muslims of Kashmir has remained unabated for over seventy years.
In a newly released 14-minute video titled 'Don't forget Kashmir', Zawahiri began his speech by stating that "Kashmiris are caught between the brutality of the major community and the conspiracies of Pakistan's intelligence agencies".
Calling Pakistani Army and its government 'toadies of the United States', the Al-Qaeda chief said that Pakistan Army was lying in wait for Arab militants, who wanted to head to Kashmir after expelling Soviets from Afghanistan.
Zawahiri argued that Pakistan government is "exploiting the militants for specific political objectives, only to dump or persecute them later; the beneficiaries, in the end, being a bunch of traitors who fill their pockets with bribes and illegitimate wealth."
He further said that Pakistan's intelligence agencies arrested the militants of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic Emirate, tortured them in its prisons and handed them over to the 'Crusaders'.
"Many were killed in the secret prisons of these agencies. These same agencies provided the Americans safe houses, secret private prisons, logistic routes and support, secured the land route (to Afghanistan) for them, and in return received bribes," he claimed.
Zawahiri also asserted that the government of Pakistan cannot be trusted to liberate Kashmir.
"When it comes to defending Muslims, the Pakistan Army possesses a very dark history. The Army that helped America destroy Afghanistan, the army that surrendered Bengal to India, the army that carried out massacres of Muslims in Balochistan and expelled the residents of Waziristan and Swat from their homes is not an army that can be entrusted with the defence of Muslims anywhere," he argued.
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