India-Pakistan conflict: At a recent United Nations briefing, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto defended Hafiz Abdur Rauf, who was seen leading funeral prayers after India’s Operation Sindoor airstrikes on terror camps. Rauf is linked to groups accused of supporting terrorism in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Bhutto insisted that Rauf is not a terrorist, repeating a line previously pushed by Pakistan’s military media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), claiming that Rauf merely shares a name with a sanctioned terrorist.
“This delegation (India’s global outreach) goes around violently shoving this picture in everybody’s face. They say ‘Look, this guy is a terrorist.’ The fact of the matter is that this man is not a terrorist. He happens to have a name similar to one of the sanctioned people, but he’s not,” Bhutto said, attempting to dismiss India’s evidence of Rauf’s presence at the funeral.
Bilawal’s narrative vs international reality
Despite Bhutto’s claims, ISPR’s own evidence contradicts this defence. The ISPR shared a computerised national identity card (CNIC) for Hafiz Abdur Rauf showing a date of birth and identification number that exactly match those on the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of designated global terrorists. The CNIC also confirms Rauf’s affiliation with the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), the successor to the Muslim League (MML), both designated by the US as fronts for the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) since April 2018.
The US Treasury Department has stated, “Few individuals are more integral to LeT’s fundraising than Hafiz Abdur Rauf,” highlighting his senior leadership role and involvement in terror financing. Rauf has been linked to LeT’s charity fronts.
What India said?
India has strongly rebutted Pakistan’s claims, with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri highlighting photographic evidence showing Hafiz Abdur Rauf leading funeral prayers attended by uniformed Pakistani military and police officials, contradicting Pakistan’s attempts to portray him as a civilian cleric.
“These are not clerics or civilians — they are designated terrorists and those who support them,” Misri said, underscoring the international community’s skepticism towards Pakistan’s denials.