A senior Pakistani minister on Thursday admitted that Pakistan was responsible for the Pulwama terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 that had killed 40 CRPF personnel.

“Humne Hindustan ko ghus ke maara (We entered India and attacked it). Our success in Pulwama is a success of this nation under the leadership of Imran Khan,” science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry said in the National Assembly during a debate.

When some of his fellow lawmakers objected to his mention of “success in Pulwama”, the minister said that “after the Pulwama incident, the way Pakistan went inside Indian territory to target it, the entire media in India was ashamed of it.” However, he did not retract his claim of “success in Pulwama”.

Chaudhry, a close aide of Prime Minister Khan, made the remarks a day after Opposition leader Ayaz Sadiq said that foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had in an important meeting pleaded for the release of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured by the Pakistan Army on February 27, 2019, after his MiG-21 Bison jet was shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani jets.

“Legs were shaking and forehead perspiring, and the foreign minister told us, ‘For God’s sake, let him (Abhinandan) go back now because India is attacking Pakistan at 9pm in the night’,” Sadiq said, adding the meeting was attended by army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar said Sadiq’s statement was an attempt to “distort history”. “Pakistan first demonstrated its capability and resolve and the actions taken on February 27 were from the position of strength,” he said.

On Thursday, Sadiq in a video statement said that he was being “misquoted”.