ASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Some 40,000 trained militants with experience of fighting in Kashmir and Afghanistan are based on Pakistani soil, Prime Minister Imran Khan admitted on Tuesday night, but added his country cannot be blamed for the Pulwama suicide attack as it was carried out by a Kashmiri youngster.

Khan acknowledged the presence of the large number of militants in his country during an interaction at the US Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank funded by the US Congress. Khan contended his government was being backed by the powerful military in efforts to disarm the militants.

Asked about his government’s efforts to crack down on terrorist leaders such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and banned groups such as the Jaishe-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed the Pulwama attack that killed 40 Indian troopers and triggered a face-off between the two countries, Khan sought to create the impression that the suicide bombing was the work of a local affected by the situation in Kashmir.