"Until we came into power, the governments did not have the political will because when you talk about militant groups we still have about 30,000-40,000 armed people who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir," the Pakistani Prime Minister said during a function in Washington on the final day of his three-day US visit.
He sought to clarify that the Pakistan government had no role in the 14 February Pulwama terror attack in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, in which 40 security personnel were killed.
Khan, however, admitted that it was members of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) who carried out the attack.
"A Kashmiri boy was radicalised after the brutalities of the Indian security forces, and he carried out the attack. But suddenly Pakistan came into the limelight," Khan added.
The statement followed his talks with US President Donald Trump in which terrorism, the Kashmir issue and the Afghanistan peace process were discussed at length.
Trump, following talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister, in a press briefing said, if requested by both sides he could mediate to resolve the seven decades-long Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
The relations between the two South Asian rivals nosedived to a low and reached a near war-like situation after the Pulwama terror attack.
The Indian Air Force, in a "preemptive non-military" airstrike, destroyed alleged terror infrastructure in Balakot inside Pakistan.
The following day, Pakistan retaliated with nearly two dozen fighter jets and targeted an Indian military installation in Kashmir. In a dogfight on 27 February, India's MiG-21 Bison allegedly shot down Pakistan's F-16 fighter jet before it crashed on Pakistan's side of Kashmir.
