The military spokesperson, during a press conference, displayed a Pakistani National Identity Card to assert that the individual was simply a party worker with no links to terrorism.
In a desperate bid to deflect international criticism, Pakistan's military on Sunday claimed that a man seen in viral images alongside Pakistani Army officers at a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist's funeral was merely "an innocent family man" and "a preacher." The clarification by the Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) appears aimed at countering mounting evidence linking the Pakistan Army to designated global terrorists.
The military spokesperson, during a press conference, displayed a Pakistani National Identity Card to assert that the individual was simply a party worker with no links to terrorism. However, the identity card presented matches the official records of Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist sanctioned under the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). His name, date of birth, and national ID number are consistent with details found in US sanctions documentation.
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Earlier, the US Treasury Department had noted that "few individuals are more integral to LeT's fundraising than Hafiz Abdur Rauf and Mian Abdullah," highlighting his role in sustaining the group's terror infrastructure.
Despite this glaring contradiction, international media covering the press conference have so far refrained from highlighting what Indian officials call a blatant admission of state-sponsored terrorism.
Addressing the issue at a high-level briefing on Operation Sindoor, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri exposed a photograph of Hafiz Abdul Rauf, confirmed as a senior LeT commander, leading funeral prayers for terrorists killed during India's recent precision strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
"Giving terrorists state funerals may be a practice in Pakistan. It doesn't seem to make much sense to us," Misri said.
The development comes amid Pakistan's continued denial of any involvement in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 lives. Though the Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, has twice claimed responsibility for the massacre, Pakistan has actively blocked attempts to list the group under international sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.
