Sheikh Hasina, who quit as prime minister and fled Bangladesh, will be back in the country as soon as democracy is restored, his son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said on Thursday and blamed Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, for fuelling the ongoing unrest in the country.
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The Pakistani military on Saturday dismissed as "absurd and baseless" a British newspaper's report that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was behind a defamation campaign against Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Pakistan People's Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The Pakistani judicial commission investigating the killing of Osama bin Laden has interviewed the al Qaeda leader's widows and daughters for the first time, the panel announced on Wednesday.
The already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan further deteriorated when Admiral Mike Mullen on Thursday accused the Inter-Services Intelligence agency for supporting the Haqqani network in planning and executing an assault on the US embassy in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has claimed it had 'absolutely no role' in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and attempts to link the organisation and its ex-chiefs to the incident were a 'crude smear attempt', a media report said on Monday.
The revelation was made by ISI officials during a three-hour briefing behind closed doors for the Senate Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production on Thursday.
Journalists in Pakistan have been permitted to carry small fire arms for self-defence said Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Wednesday. The announcement comes in the wake of the murder of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad.
Some operators said the channel was blocked for airing the two-part documentary "Secret Pakistan", which highlighted links between the Inter-Services Intelligence agency and Taliban fighters.
In a severe indictment of Pakistan's links with terror groups, top United States military commander on Thursday said the Inter-Services Intelligence provided support to the Haqqani terror network in carrying out the recent attack on the country's embassy in Kabul.
Inter-Services Intelligence agency chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha visited the United States to discuss intelligence coordination and not the resumption of military aid that was recently suspended by the American administration, the Pakistani military spokesman said on Saturday.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday dismissed reports that his government was planning to remove the chiefs of the Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency, saying he had personally ensured that both generals were given an extension in service.
United States authorities have described Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency as a terrorist organisation and considered it as much of a threat as the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a secret document which also names Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.
There were reports of lobbying within the Pakistan army for the ISI DG's post, which falls vacant in June, reveals Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday dismissed a report that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency is funding, training and guiding the Taliban in Afghanistan as "rubbish", saying Talibanisation is not good for both countries.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has categorically denied any links with the Taliban.The Daily Times quoted ISI Director General Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha as saying that the ISI is a professional agency and does not have links with any militant outfit, including the Taliban. Pasha's remarks came during a meeting with Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta, National Security Adviser Lieutenant General James Jones and other officials.
The United States on Wednesday dismissed as 'false and outrageous' the allegations made by former Inter-Services Intelligence agency chief Hamid Gul that the United States government was involved in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.Noting that Gul had 'repeatedly asserted the outrageous and baseless claim' during appearances on two TV news channels, a spokesman for the US embassy said, "The US rejects this and other false allegations."
A Pakistani court barred the government from extraditing five Afghan Taliban leaders captured in the country, including Mullah Baradar, and asked the administration to explain its position in the matter on Friday.
The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second-in-command of the Taliban forces operating in Afghanistan, is being seen as a dramatic shift in the policies of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency, which had hitherto covertly supported some of the organisation's top leaders.But experts warn that by helping the Central Intelligence Agency nab Baradar, the Pakistan government and the ISI will lose the sympathies of Mullah Omer-led Afghan Taliban.
Pakistan's failure to trace Osama bin Laden to the compound near Abbottabad where he was killed was an "embarrassment" for the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, BBC reported on Tuesday.
Pakistan's top political leadership was on Friday briefed by Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on the security situation in the country after suspected Taliban militants carried out a series of brazen attacks on military and police establishments.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency is making all-out efforts to revive terrorism in Punjab by providing funds to radical groups, state Director General of Police Paramdeep Singh said in Jalandhar on Saturday.
A confidential Spanish defence ministry report has alleged Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped arm the Taliban in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government, media reports said. The confidential report, obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station's Web site, also alleges the Inter Services Intelligence helped the Taliban procure roadside bombs.
A Pakistani court on Monday directed the government not to deport five American Muslim youths, arrested on suspicion of terror links, to the United States or any other country. Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore high court issued the order in response to a petition filed by former Inter Services Intelligence agency official Khalid Khwaja. In his petition, Khwaja said the five youths should be tried under Pakistani laws.
The ball is in the Central Intelligence Agency's court if it wants to take its relationship with the Inter-Services Intelligence agency back to the level it was prior to the arrest of United States security contractor Raymond Davis for gunning down two Pakistani men, according to a media report.
A top unnamed ISI official was quoted by Dawn News agency as saying that the agency had shifted its focus from domestic politics to internal security. The ISI would focus on the war against terrorism, which is the most serious security challenge facing Pakistan, the official said.
Diplomatic and other sources say the two organisations believe they can play a role because they are intrinsically linked to policy-making in Pakistan.
Highest levels of Pakistan's security apparatus, including army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, might have been aware of the plot to bomb the Indian embassy in Kabul in July, United States intelligence and security officials believe, a media report has said.They also believe that the attack was aided by Pakistan's infamous Inter Services Intelligence agency."It's very difficult to imagine he (General Kayani) was not aware," a senior American official said.
Coming under 'immense pressure' from the defence establishments, the Pakistan government has withdrawn its decision to place the Inter Services Intelligence under civilian control, leading newspapers reported on Monday.Less than 24 hours after moving to clip the wings of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the government issued a clarification stating that its earlier notification that the body had been placed under direct control of the Interior Ministry was 'misunderstood.'
Pakistan has rejected India's allegation about the involvement of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency in the recent suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan capital Kabul.
On a day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the Mumbai attacks could not have been carried out without the support of official agencies in Pakistan, Intelligence Bureau sources told rediff.com that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency had detailed knowledge about the planning and execution of the November 26 attacks in Mumbai. No terror operation in India is a success unless it is backed by the ISI, the sources added.
Dismissing India's contention that ISI could be involved in the recent blasts in various cities, Pakistan on that such allegations could vitiate the atmosphere for the ongoing Composite Dialogue process. "Pakistan rejects the allegations leveled by the National Security Adviser of India, M K Narayanan, about the suspected involvement of ISI in Ludhiana, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts," Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Sadiq said in Islamabad on Thursday.
The government on Monday said it does not have inputs to suggest that the Naxals have established links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. "There are no inputs to suggest that the Naxals have established links with the ISI," Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour. He said as many as 217 security personnel and 441 civilians were killed in Naxal violence and action against them till November 30.
"Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency imparted the training to Gurpreet Singh," said Punjab Director-General of Police N P S Aulakh. Gurpreet Singh and two other suspected Babbar Khalsa militants were arrested near the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar on December 25. Aulakh said that Gurpreet went to Pakistan with a jatha of Sikh pilgrims and he was trained with another terrorist Harminder Singh. Gurpreet returned in mid-2007 to revive the terrorist module in the state.
Cut off from the world and having to contend with an orthodox and repressive Taliban government, Afghans are facing the brunt of Pakistan's decades old policy of nurturing militant groups, note Harsh V Pant and Kriti M Shah four months after the Taliban took Kabul.
Germany's foreign intelligence agency helped the Central Investigation Agency track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, before the Al Qaeda leader was killed by United States special forces in May 2011, according to a media report today.
Mark Kelton was removed from Islamabad two months after the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, citing health concerns.
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