‘Millions of Abdul Raufs’: Ex-Pakistan FM Hina Rabbani downplays LeT terrorist’s funeral photograph; gets fact-checked by journalist

Hina Rabbani Khar (Picture from X)

Pakistan’s former international minister Hina Rabbani Khar confronted an uncomfortable second throughout a current Al Jazeera interview as she tried to defend a person, seen main funeral prayers for terrorists killed in India’s counterterror Operation Sindoor.The particular person, extensively recognized as senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a UN-designated terrorist, was seen main funeral prayers for terrorists killed within the Operation Sindoor strikes, the place the our bodies had been accorded full state honours in Pakistan, with uniformed police and armed forces personnel in attendance.Khar claimed the person in query was not the LeT determine India accuses him of being. “I am telling you with authority, with evidence which has been shared with the whole world, that this is not the man that you (India) are claiming it to be. There are a million Abdul Raufs in Pakistan,” she mentioned, dismissing India’s assertion.However, her defence started to falter when the interviewer identified that the person’s nationwide ID quantity matches one listed on the US Treasury Department’s sanctions database.The journalist talked about that the nationwide identification quantity belonging to Hafiz Abdul Rauf — 35202-5400413-9 — was equivalent to the one listed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the US Treasury’s record of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).Pressed additional, Khar responded, “The Pakistani army is defending this man. The Pakistani army is not defending the person who is proscribed by the US.”She continued, “The ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations of Pakistan Army) categorically has said that this is not the same person, and you just sat over here and told me that they just defended him and did not say it is not the same person.”The man on the centre of the controversy, Hafiz Abdul Rauf, is thought to be an in depth affiliate of 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and holds senior standing within the LeT. The presence of his identification quantity within the official doc proven by Pakistan’s army spokesperson, DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif, matched that of the terrorist sanctioned by the United States.Under Operation Sindoor, India carried out precision strikes on 9 terrorist hubs in Pakistan and PoK, together with a serious Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke, which was lowered to rubble.In an surprising revelation, the identical US record additionally names Lt Gen Sharif’s father, Mahmood Sultan Bashiruddin, as a chosen terrorist with hyperlinks to al-Qaida — additional elevating questions in regards to the Pakistani army’s position in shielding extremists.