“‘ISI and Pakistan Army trained al-Qaeda and all these groups to fight in Afghanistan. There were always links, there had to be links because they trained them,’ Imran Khan said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. PM Imran Khan’s statement is seen by many an admission of Pakistan’s Army’s support to terror groups like al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet forces with the help of the United States (US).”
Yes, the US aided in this, as the government was as clueless and willfully ignorant of the nature of the jihad threat as much then as it is now.
“However, it must be noted that al-Qaeda was not formed during the Soviet War.”
There were jihad groups there, out of which al-Qaeda arose.
“ISI trained al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan, admits Pakistan PM Imran Khan,” by Hamza Ameer, India Today, September 25, 2019 (thanks to Henry):
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is in the United States for the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) session, has admitted that it was the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan top spy agency, which trained al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan during the Soviet war.
“ISI and Pakistan Army trained al-Qaeda and all these groups to fight in Afghanistan. There were always links, there had to be links because they trained them,” Imran Khan said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
PM Imran Khan’s statement is seen by many an admission of Pakistan’s Army’s support to terror groups like al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet forces with the help of the United States (US). However, it must be noted that al-Qaeda was not formed during the Soviet War.
It was after the exit of the Soviet forces that al-Qaeda was formed and claimed its territorial power in Afghanistan.
However, Imran Khan’s statement that Pakistan trained militant groups during the Soviet War, who later transformed into al-Qaeda, would be the right and factually correct.
“The resistance was organised by ISI training these militants, who were invited for jihad against the Soviet Union. And so, we created these militant groups to fight the Soviets. They were indoctrinated that fighting foreign occupation is jihad. But now, when the US arrived in Afghanistan, it was supposed to be terrorism. So Pakistan took a real battering in this,” Imran Khan said….