This island nation has become a launching pad for Jihadis, and this creates a lot of problems for the security agencies across the world. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The United States at this point of time is not in a position to certify that there is no link between the Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and the dreaded Haqqani network, a senior top American official has said.
Pakistan was on Thursday dismissive of India's attempts to raise fresh evidence of Inter Service Intelligence's links to the 26/11 attacks at the upcoming foreign secretary-level talks, stating clearly that the agenda would be limited to three issues: Kashmir, peace and security and friendly exchanges.
In an apparent response to India's move to focus on fresh evidence linking the Inter Services Intelligence to the Mumbai terror attacks during the foreign secretary-level talks, Pakistan on Wednesday said it was imperative to address the "core issue" of Kashmir in the upcoming dialogue. Pakistan's stand was formulated during a meeting between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and representatives of the Kashmiri leadership. Bashir met the leaders for consultations.
Notwithstanding Pakistan's denial, Lashkare-Tayiba operative David Headley has highlighted the deep involvement of the Inter-Services Intelligence in the Mumbai attacks conspiracy by revealing how he received meticulous training in espionage from its officers and agents during "hundreds" of sessions.
Pointing at Inter Services Intelligence's direct involvement in providing arms to militants in Kashmir, Tahawwur Rana, one of the key accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, has told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Pakistan's spy agency gives weapons to terrorists when they are about to enter the Indian territory.
Pakistan apparently aided the killing of the dreaded Al Qaeda-linked terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, who had come to figure as the most wanted militant for the security establishment.
Days after Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley implicated Inter-Services Intelligence in the Mumbai attacks during his testimony in a United States court, Interior minister Rehman Malik has described him as a convict who has "no credibility and cannot be trusted."
Reacting sharply to Inter Services Intelligence's denial of involvement in the murder of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, a leading Pakistani newspaper publisher has claimed that the reporter had received death threats from the spy agency on at least three occasions.
Pakistanis on Wednesday reacted with revulsion and anger to the "silencing" of investigative journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, whose body was found days after he went missing in the wake of authoring a report that alleged al-Qaeda had infiltrated the Pakistan Navy.
Expressing concern on the shocking revelations made by David Headley implicating the Inter Services Intelligence with 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has urged the Central government not to suspend the composite dialogue with Pakistan.
Giving his testimony on the second day of the trial of 26/11 co-accused Tawahhur Rana, a Canadian of Pakistani origin, Headley, a Pakistani-American, talked about the hatred against Shiv Sena among his Pakistani handlers. 166 people were killed in the November 2008 attack in Mumbai.
Bhartiya Janata party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, has urged the government expose Pakistan after David Headly told the Chicago trial court about the links between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and various terror groups during the preliminary hearing of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba's Mumbai attack.
Headley also said that LeT boss Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the November 2008 attack that killed 166 persons, motivated him for carrying out a 'jihad'. Saeed told him that the satisfaction of one second of 'jihad' is equal to "100 years of worship."
During opening statements at Chicago's Dirksen Federal Building, Assistant US Attorney Sarah Streicker said that Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian, told Headley, an American of Pakistani origin, after the Mumbai carnage in which 166 persons were killed in November 2008 that the "Indians deserved it."
"We have asked the Pakistani government to address those allegations in the past," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told media persons when asked about the alleged involvement of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Under intense global scrutiny over his spy agency's failure to detect Osama bin Laden's presence in Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has "surrendered" himself to Parliament so that he could be held accountable for any lapses related to the unilateral United States raid that killed the dreaded terrorist.
Pakistan's Inter-Services intelligence facilitated terrorists to cross the border to carry out strikes on Indian targets chosen by the Pakistan Army, several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay facility told US interrogators, according to a fresh set of American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
Post Osama, Lashkar-e-Tayiba's clout is expected to grow with the support of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence and fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Pakistan national Major Iqbal, who has been indicted by United States federal prosecutors for his involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attack, was a serving Inter Services Intelligence officer, a media report said on Wednesday.
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.
Pakistani authorities were unable to trace the reports of two commissions that investigated the funding of politicians by the Inter-Services Intelligence in 1990, the government's top law officer informed the Supreme Court on Friday.
Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai, who was arrested last year on charges of being a paid agent of the Inter Services Intelligence, has lied to the court about possessing a doctorate degree, a United States attorney has said. "Fai has no doctorate degree," United States Attorney Neil MacBride informed the court on Wednesday in a foot-note, of the 10-page submission to the US district court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Bharatiya Janata party on Saturday cautioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against India holding talks with Pakistan in the wake of a top United States Army Commander's statement that Inter-Services Intelligence was working in "close coordination" with terror groups.
There has been 'no decline' in support from Pakistan to terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and top militant leaders including Hafiz Saeed are operating with impunity from its territory despite international pressure after Mumbai terror attacks, Army Chief Deepak Kapoor has said.
Two days after reports of Tahawwur Rana admitting to providing support to 26/11 terrorists at the behest of Pakistani government and the Inter-Services Intelligence, his attorneys on Thursday denied any "knowing involvement" of the Pakistani-Canadian in the attacks.
The new chiefs of the Inter Services Intelligence and Pakistan Air Force on Monday assumed office, a day ahead of a crucial parliamentary session that will determine the contours of future relations with the United States. Lieutenant General Zahir-ul-Islam went to the ISI headquarters at Aabpara Islamabad to take charge as the new director general of the powerful spy agency.
The United States is looking forward to work with the new head of Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan, Pentagon said, noting the US-Pak relationship is critical for the region and Afghanistan.
Pakistani authorities have "documentary evidence" of the distribution of millions of rupees among the country's politicians in 1990 by a banker who acted at the behest of the security establishment, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Monday.
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.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday said the insurgency situation in the state had assumed a new dimension with Maoists trying to strike an alliance with insurgent groups, and the involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in it.
Experts have warned that the Raymond Davis case could affect the flow of billions of dollars of economic and military aid to Pakistan and complicate the United States-led war on terror in Afghanistan
India is all set to ask the United States and Pakistan to extradite nine persons involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that include Pakistani- American terrorist David Headley, Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed and two Inter-Services Intelligence officers.
The Pakistan government will not grant any further extension to Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, whose current term ends in March, and is considering the names of three generals to replace him, according to a media report on Thursday.
The government of India has a moral responsibility for working towards a consensus for the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland, says B Raman
Pakistan's powerful army and the its espionage agency Inter Services Intelligence are using "terrorist brinkmanship" to threaten India and undermine their own Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to secure domestic gains against their civilian leaders, a former CIA analyst has said.
A Pakistani court has admitted a petition seeking to block any attempt by the government to sack army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter Services Intelligence chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha over the memo scandal. The petition filed by lawyer Maulvi Iqbal Haider was accepted by the Islamabad high court on Wednesday. Haider asked the court to restrain the president and prime minister from taking any action against the army and ISI chiefs.
Faisal Sheikh, a prime accused in the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai, has confessed to police that he had gone to Pakistan in 2002 and attended a training camp near Muzaffarabad.