In a striking piece titled “All Roads Lead to Pakistan,” Blackburn deploys rhyme and rhythm to weave together a litany of global terror attacks — from the 9/11 bombings in New York and the 7/7 transit attacks in London, to the 2008 Mumbai carnage and unrest in Kashmir. Each stanza ends with a refrain that echoes his central argument: “All roads, all roads lead to Pakistan.”

The poem, now circulating widely across social media platforms, takes aim at Pakistan’s role as a hub for extremist networks. Though not an unfamiliar assertion in diplomatic circles, Blackburn’s decision to express this through verse has added a layer of emotional resonance that policy reports and press briefings rarely capture.

9/11, 7/7 — the skies burned red,
The flags of terror left defenceless dead.
From cave to command, from plot to plan,
All roads, all roads lead to Pakistan.
26/11 — Mumbai bled,
Ash and flame where children fled.
22/4 — in Pahalgam’s grace,
A meadow fell — a shattered place.
From Kalashnikov to prayer and ban,
All roads, all roads lead to Pakistan.
New York weeps, and London mourns,
Bali’s beaches, Kashmir’s thorns.
From training camps to hidden hand,
The signal’s clear, the airwaves scanned —
Terror stirs where shadows span:
All roads, all roads lead to Pakistan.

A specialist in international relations and counterterrorism, Blackburn has been a frequent commentator in European think tank discussions on radicalization, cross-border extremism, and human rights in South Asia. His current role with the EBF — a group that advocates for secularism and minority rights in Bangladesh — has brought him closer to diaspora concerns about religious extremism and state complicity.

His poetic pivot comes amid growing scrutiny of Pakistan’s domestic policies and its relationships with jihadist groups. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which had previously grey-listed the country for terror financing concerns, lifted the designation in 2022 — a move that critics like Blackburn viewed as premature.

The poem’s structure is simple, almost nursery-like in its cadence, but its content is anything but gentle. References to “Kalashnikov to prayer and ban” and “terror stirs where shadows span” leave little ambiguity about Blackburn’s message: international terrorism, regardless of where it strikes, has operational links that often trace back to Islamabad’s orbit.

Whether praised for its courage or criticized for its bluntness, “All Roads Lead to Pakistan” has succeeded in sparking conversation — and perhaps that was Blackburn’s goal all along.

“Rejection of false media report on FATF. Responding to media queries regarding role of Saudi Arabia in assessment of Pakistan’s FATF Action Plan, the Spokesperson categorically rejected the story circulating on segment of the media as false and baseless”, Government of Pakistan tweeted.

“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong fraternal ties and the two countries have always cooperated with each other on all matters of bilateral, regional and international importance”, it added. “Pakistan greatly values its relations with the brotherly Saudi Arabia and firmly rejects such malicious propaganda. FATF will announce its assessment of Pakistan’s progress on the Action Plan and the future course of action after conclusion of its Plenary Meeting”.

The fake news went viral in Pakistan on Thursday morning when a senior journalist Sabir Shakir wrote that, “Saudi Arabia vote against Pakistan in FATF”. Soon after the news broke out, Pakistani expatriates and citizens resorted to social media to express the disagreement.

Pakistan’s political analysts and commentators saw the malicious propaganda as an attempt to strain the decades-long friendship and to damage the long-lasting relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

FATF is an intergovernmental organization based in France, it was founded in 1989 to develop policies and procedures to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats that can potentially damage international financial system.

Pakistan was placed on the FATF grey list in June 2018. While in February 2020, FATF granted a grace period of four months to Pakistan to complete its 27-point action plan against money laundering and terrorist financing.