RECENTLY a shocking revelation highlighted the involvement of a US agency in financing terror groups to create mayhem in Pakistan. During the court hearing of Omar Mateen, involved in shooting at Pulse nightclub in Florida in 2016 where 49 people were killed, the judge was informed that Omar’s father was an FBI informant from 2005 till 2016. His contact with the agency ended only after his son committed the shooting.

It was also revealed that the family was also involved in collecting funds and sending it to Turkey and Pakistan to finance terror groups. One witness has even claimed that in one instance $100,000 was sought by the family as donation towards an attack against the Pakistan government in 2012. It was also revealed that just before Omar’s attack, he had transferred huge amounts to Pakistan and Turkey for terrorism.

All these revelations highlight how the FBI is using informants to create unrest and fund terrorism in Pakistan. In this case, it seems that the informant’s family was not comfortable with financing terrorism in another Muslim country, which led to the son of the informant committing the horrible crime in June 2016.

The government should use all international forums to request other governments to declare FBI and other US agencies as terror financing and suggest sanctions against them.

Mohammad Baseer Khan

Peshawar

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018