Shanthie Mariet D'Souza, an associate fellow with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, traces the future of India-Afghanistan relations. The October 8 attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan, a grim reminder of a similar attack on July 7, 2008, has yet again highlighted the challenges of India's involvement in Afghanistan.
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.
Amid threats of fresh attacks on Indian assets in Afghanistan following the deadly suicide bombing at its embassy, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon arrived in Kabul on Sunday to discuss ways to revamp security to thwart designs of the Taliban and its mentor Inter Services Intelligence.
Both were engaged in spying for the ISI and a number of documents related to Indian army were recovered from their possession, he said.
Five Pakistani fishermen have been arrested after venturing into Indian waters from the Deveri Creek area in Kutch district by the Border Security Force, which is investigating if one of them, held earlier from the same spot, had any links with the Inter Services Intelligence."Five Pakistani fishermen were arrested from the Deveri Creek area on Sunday after a hard pursuit of over two hours," BSF officials said.
While India managed to seal the fake currency's Pakistan and Nepal route into India to a large extent, Inter Services Intelligence-sponsored operatives have furthered their activities by shifting base to Thailand.
High Commissioner Sabharwal and the ISI DG were tight-lipped about the developments. When this scribe told Lt Gen Pasha that Pakistan was doing a lot to improve relations with India but the response from India was not very encouraging, he said, "Let's hope for the best, things will definitely improve."
India on Sunday said it was good that the Obama administration recognised the links between the Inter-Services Intelligence and Haqqani network of Taliban, amid a raging United States-Pakistan row over the spy agency's support to the dreaded terror outfit.
The five-member team will be given a detailed presentation before they visit the attack site on Tuesday.
Top Pakistani officials are refusing to disclose how and on what the country's powerful spy agency Inter Services Intelligence spent a whopping Rs 5.55 billion allocated to it during 2007-08. "This is highly sensitive information and hence I can't talk about it at an open forum," Finance Secretary Salman Siddiqui told the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly or the lower house of parliament.
Terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba has been trying for some time to let its partner Harkat-ul-Jihadi carry out subversive operations in India, as it wants to concentrate on staging a major strike in the United States. Lashkar is actively patronised by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. After the 26/11 terror strikes, several Lashkar cadres wanted to cross over to Afghanistan and plan a strike in the US. But the ISI turned down this plan.
Diplomatic and other sources say the two organisations believe they can play a role because they are intrinsically linked to policy-making in Pakistan.
Preparing the ground for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Egypt, Islamabad has handed over a fresh dossier on its probe into the Mumbai terror attacks to New Delhi which is figuring out what it amounts to.
Against the backdrop of the WikiLeaks disclosure about Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services-Intelligence's double-game in Afghanistan, former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has said the Pakistani spy agency has a relationship with the Taliban.
The Hyderabad task force police on Sunday arrested 14 people from Bangladesh, suspected to be Inter Services Intelligence agents, at the Secunderabad railway station.
Ghulam alias Raja Mohideen, editor of Kashmir Press Service, was picked up by the police from Delhi.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday indirectly blamed the Taliban for the daring suicide attack on the Inter Services Intelligence's provincial headquarters in Lahore. "It appears to be a fall-out of the ongoing military operations in Swat, Dir and other areas of the North West Frontier Province," Malik said and warned that there would be no let up in the crackdown on these 'anti-national elements'.
A former director-general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has said that United States President Barack Obama will pull out American troops from Afghanistan for economic reasons rather than for strategic ones because his administration would find the ongoing surge unsustainable.
As Pakistan took exception to Home Secretary G K Pillai's recent remarks on Inter Services Intelligence's role in Mumbai attacks, India on Friday said that there is no acrimony between the two sides on the issue.
A top American General has said that it would not be surprising if Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter Services Intelligence has links with Islamist extremist groups, which have set up a safe haven in the country's restive tribal region.
The accused, Sheikh Riazuddin, was under the scanner of the BSF intelligence wing for his suspicious activities for the last few months, they said.
The evidence recorded by the special court and also Headley's interrogation makes the dossier a strong one, sources said. All the earlier dossiers that were handed over were largely based on the investigation conducted by the police, which Pakistan refused to take note of. However, this time it is armed with evidence that has been recorded by a court of law, which makes India's case stronger.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has been appointed the Al Qaeda chief following the killing of Osama bin Laden, is probably hiding in Pakistan and can be nabbed by the Inter Services Intelligence if it "really wants" to do so, a top United States Senator has said.
Oberoi hotel, one of the sites attacked during the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, was not originally on the list of targets for surveillance given to David Headley by his Inter Services Intelligence handler. But the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative made a video of it after filming Chabad House as he had an hour to spare before he could catch a movie.This was revealed by the LeT operative in his testimony before a Chicago court during co-accused Tahawwur Rana's recently-concluded trial.
North-eastern insurgent groups are operating from Bangladesh and they have established links with the Inter Services Intelligence, the government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha saying the matter has been taken up with Pakistan.
As the Chicago court prepares its verdict in the case of Pakistani-American terror accused Tawwahur Rana, Indian agencies wait with bated breath for the result.
Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, who claimed credit for the recent deadly attack on a police academy near Lahore, has links with the country's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), a media report said.
India may approach a New York court to be a party to a lawsuit, filed by the family of 26/11 victims Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, to declare Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence as a terrorist group.
For Pakistan, it's a Catch-22 situation. Under pressure from the United States, it may have to chop and change the ISI set-up. But if it tinkers too much with the elite agency, Islamabad risks a more horrifying repurcussion. Vicky Nanjappa reports
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.
In that case, who is Colonel R Saadat Ullah? Why underplay the fact mentioned in chargesheet that he belongs to Pakistan government's Special Communication Organisation?
Kiyani is a non-controversial officer, who had in the past not come to notice for any dubious association with the Taliban or Al Qaeda or any of Pakistan's fundamentalist organisations.
The officials said several "incriminating" documents have been seized during the searches, which reveal the "large-scale conversion" allegedly carried out by Umar Gautam and his organisations across India.
Describing the organisers of the 26/11 and Kabul embassy attacks as "clients and creations" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, India has said those behind the carnages are known to prepare for strikes across the world and cautioned against any compromise with such forces.
Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa spoke to experts about the Indian government's decision to become party to a lawsuit in the United States against the Pakistan government and its spy agency Inter Services Intelligence over their involvement in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai
The terror suspect's father reacts to reports that his son has been killed in Pakistan.
Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz may hold talks with Pakistani Army generals soon to negotiate a deal before the deposed premier returns home, most probably on September 9, a leading daily reported on Monday.
Kayani along with other ISI officials supervised my training programme in Pakistan. Kayani even gave me Rs 25,000 before I left Pakistan. He had sent his man along with me to the airport and ensured that I got out safe from Pakistan," Sabahuddin further revealed.