“‘ISI and Pakistan Army trained al-Qaeda and all these groups to fight in Afghanistan. There were always links, there had to be links because they trained them,’ Imran Khan said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. PM Imran Khan’s statement is seen by many an admission of Pakistan’s Army’s support to terror groups like al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet forces with the help of the United States (US).”

Yes, the US aided in this, as the government was as clueless and willfully ignorant of the nature of the jihad threat as much then as it is now.

“However, it must be noted that al-Qaeda was not formed during the Soviet War.”

There were jihad groups there, out of which al-Qaeda arose.

“ISI trained al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan, admits Pakistan PM Imran Khan,” by Hamza Ameer, India Today, September 25, 2019 (thanks to Henry):