Chandigarh [India], May 2 (ANI): Brigadier Inderjeet Singh Chugh on Friday strongly criticised Pakistan for its double standards on terrorism and pointed out how former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto in the past had admitted that Pakistan had trained and funded terrorists and threatened India with atomic bombs, but later said that the country suffered a lot of damage, likely due to pressure from other countries.

Speaking with ANI, Chugh said, 'Bilawal Bhutto, who has made many statements in the past and threatened us with atomic bombs, is going back on his statement, maybe because of the pressure. Now he says that we used to train and fund the terrorists, but we suffered a lot of damage to our country, and we have learned lessons from it, and now we have stopped all this. The information was given earlier in such a way that we used to train them under the pressure of the United States and the United Kingdom. So, with all these statements, he has gone back...'

Chugh said, 'There is a lot of pressure on them right now... America must have asked them when we told them thirty years ago to send terrorists against India. So, there is a pressure war and pressure from the countries they had linked together. So he has withdrawn his statement.'

Notably, Bilawal Bhutto on Thursday acknowledged Pakistan's history with terrorism, claiming the nation has suffered but has reformed.

In a Thursday conversation with Sky News's Yalda Hakim, Bhutto said, 'As far as what the defence minister said, I don't think it is a secret that Pakistan has a past... As a result, we have suffered, Pakistan has suffered. We have gone through wave after wave of extremism. But because of what we suffered, we also learned our lessons. We have gone through internal reforms to address this problem...'

'As far as Pakistan's history is concerned, it is history and it is not something that we are partaking in today. It is indeed an unfortunate part of our history,' Bhutto said.

Meanwhile, following the clearance of the Army and Air Force versions of the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv for operations, Chugh told ANI, 'This is the Dhruv Chopper, which our HAL manufactured. This is an advanced light helicopter for the Indian Army and AIR Force, which was used for many purposes, transportation, evacuation and some such helicopters had fighting capability as well. There was an accident on January 5, and 300 helicopters were grounded. So now, the good news is that HAL has checked all the helicopters and given clearance. So these helicopters will now be available to our defence force. It's a very important one.'

Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, in a statement on Thursday, said, 'In furtherance of the clarification dated 11th April 2025, it is now intimated that the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv Army and Air Force versions are cleared for operations based on the Defect Investigation (DI) Committee recommendations. A time-bound plan for the resumption of operations has been worked out with the users.'

The Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard versions of the choppers will continue to be on the ground as the investigations are still continuing.

The choppers were grounded after a crash involving an Indian Coast Guard chopper in Porbandar earlier this year. (ANI)