Exposed on live TV: What Hina Rabbani Khar’s evasion on terrorist Hafiz Abdur Rauf reveals about Pakistan’s political complicity in terror whitewashing
Pakistan’s former minister Hina Rabbani Khar had an embarrassing encounter when her lies about Pakistan’s Army were exposed on live TV during an interview with Al Jazeera journalist Sreenivasan Jain broadcast on 8th July.
In the interview, Khar was seen desperately trying to whitewash Pakistan’s image of a terror-sponsoring nation by blatantly telling lies and denying facts. When the interviewer asked Khar about the viral photo of Pakistan’s Army personnel saying prayers alongside US-designated terrorist Hafiz Abdur Rauf, during the funeral of terrorists killed in India’s aristrikes on Muridke terror camp under Operation Sindoor, Khar flat out denied it, and claimed that it was a “common man” leading the prayers and not Hafiz Abdur Rauf (watch between 8:53 and 10:42 in the video).
The image referred to in the interview (via India Today)
“Essentially, this image, which you mentioned, is a big part of India’s global outreach because they say that this shows Abdur Rauf. He is a US-designated global terrorist. He (Abdur Rauf) is leading prayers for those killed in India’s airstrikes. In attendance are senior Pakistani police and military officials. That is a damning image,” Jain said to Khar referring to the image.
Responding to the question, Khar asserted, ” I am telling with authority, with evidence, which has been shared with the whole world, that this is not the man that you are claiming it to be. There are a million Abdur Raufs in Pakistan (not sure if she meant terrorists by “Abdur Raufs”).
Seeing that Khar was lying through her teeth in claiming that the man in the image was not terrorist Abdur Rauf, the journalist confronted her with facts. “Let me respond to this. So the Pakistani Army held a press conference. They did not say this image is fake. They said Rauf is not a terrorist. They said that he is a member of a political party, and they released his national ID number. That ID number is the same one as on the US-sanctioned list. So, according to the US-sanctioned terrorist list, this man is a terrorist. The Pakistani Army is defending him,” the journalist elaborated, trying to point out the contradiction in Khar’s statements.
However, entirely overlooking the facts presented by Jain, Khar kept repeating her lies and claimed that the man in the image is not the same as the terrorist. “The Pakistani Army is defending this man (in the image). The Pakistani Army is not defending the person who is proscribed by the US,” the former minister said without realising the irony in her remarks.
The journalist reiterated the fact that the national ID number of the person in the image matched that of the US-designated terrorist Hafiz Abdur Rauf, but Khar kept ignoring the facts and stuck to her lies. “The ISPR (Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations) categorically said that this is not the same person,” she added.
Notably, following India’s retaliatory strikes on terror establishments in Pakistan and the PoJK, Pakistan’s Director General ISPR Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry confirmed in a press conference in May (2025) that the man seen leading prayers in the funeral video is named Hafiz Abdur Rauf, but he was an ordinary Pakistani man. Chaudhry presented his ID number and personal details to prove his point. However, the ID number and the personal details matched with the details of terrorist Hafiz Abdur Rauf listed in the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions database. India used this information to prove nexus between Pakistani Army and terrorists.
Sensing the futility of expecting a truthful answer from Khar, the interviewer moved on to his further questions. However, throughout the conversation, Khar kept trying to defend Pakistan’s indefensible image. Khar’s response to all the questions not only qualified as white lies but also appeared simply stupid in the light of the facts presented by Jain. Later on, during the interview, Khar pointed out that Pakistan was elected to the Presidency at the UN Security Council (UNSC) to claim that Pakistan enjoyed global support. However, Jain immediately countered her and said that while it was true that Pakistan did get the UNSC Presidency but it was equally true that the country has the highest number of US-designated terrorists.
Apparently, facts hardly mattered to Khar as she kept harping about how Pakistan was being ‘transparent’ during the entire period of military conflict with India. However, Khar’s evasive attitude to the questions and her repetetive emphasis on Pakistan’s “transparency” can be understood. When your Army personnel openly attend and say prayers in the funerals of terrorists, perhaps being ‘transparent’ seems to be the only face-saving option available.
Pakistan’s political establishment’s complicity in whitewashing terrorism
Hina Rabbani Khar’s desperate attempt on Al Jazeera to deny the presence of US-designated terrorist Hafiz Abdur Rauf leading funeral prayers, attended by Pakistani Army officials, reveals a deeper malaise in Pakistan’s political class: a chronic, institutionalised pattern of terror denial and complicity.
This isn’t a one-off embarrassment. It echoes Pakistan’s long history of shielding terrorists, most notably during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, where despite overwhelming evidence, including captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s testimony and video proof, the Pakistani establishment summarily denied the attackers’ origins and training in Pakistani terror camps.
Just as then, when Pakistan insisted Kasab was not Pakistani until undeniable proof emerged, Khar today peddles blatant falsehoods in defence of a man whose identity and terror links are internationally established. These repeated denials, whether of hosting UN-sanctioned terrorists or facilitating jihadist infrastructure, highlight how Pakistan’s so-called civilian leaders function more as apologists for the Army’s terror enterprise than as statesmen of a responsible democracy.
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