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.
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'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.
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.
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 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.
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.
"The role of external forces in the insurgency is obvious given that top ULFA leaders are sitting in Bangladesh, thanks to the ISI and DGFI."
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.
Peeved over the silence of leaders of separatist groups, their factions in Pakistan and in occupied-Kashmir are making desperate attempts to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir by giving calls from across the border for 'bandhs' and strikes to mark the death anniversary of Mirwaiz Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, officials said.
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.
'Pakistan is a nuclear country.' 'With the kind of situation that is there in Pakistan today, America will help Pakistan stay afloat.'
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.
Minister of State for Information Tariq Azim said Pakistan would take action if India provides evidence connected to Mumbai blasts. It will depend very much on what proof India provided, he told BBC.
While the Pakistan Foreign Office was yet to react, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azam rejected the claim and said India could provide any evidence it has and that Pakistan will investigate it.
The Pakistan army's legal branch has concluded that there is no scope for the military to try former army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg and former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Asad Durrani for paying millions of rupees to politicians to rig the 1990 general election, a media report said.
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.
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
He entered India through Bangladesh from where he went to Kolkata and Mumbai before reaching Lucknow to get his passport and other documents.
The Financial Intelligence Unit last month marked 200 transactions in India -- running into Rs 2000 crore -- as terror-financed. Now, it has commenced its probe to trace the origin of the funds.
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
A Pakistani court has issued notices to the chief of Inter Services Intelligence and several government officials over the recovery of the body of a man, who was allegedly tortured to death after being detained by police and spy agencies, asking them to explain how the 'missing person' died.
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.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, chapter 12 of Fulcrum of evil: ISI, CIA and Al Quaeda nexus by former joint director of IB Moloy Krishna Dhar claiming his links with ISI, is not true.
A confrontation between the army and the government came to a head in Pakistan on Wednesday with the powerful army chief warning the prime minister's critical remarks against him and the ISI chief over the memo scandal could have "very serious ramifications" for the country.
A trial court on Saturday framed charges against suspended Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta on offences carrying a lighter punishment of three years as the Delhi police was unable to establish a case that could get her the maximum punishment of 14 years. Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain charged Gupta under Section 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act for alleged spying and supplying information to an Inter Services Intelligence agent when she was posted in Islamabad.
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.
Embattled Pakistani government on Monday said Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had stepped beyond his jurisdiction when he briefed Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani about his meeting with memo scandal whistle-blower Mansoor Ijaz in London.
An Army Lieutenant Colonel was embroiled in an alleged honeytrap and then blackmailed by Inter-Services Intelligence which reportedly asked him to spy for Pakistan during his posting in Bangladesh.
Insisting that the Pakistani Army is supportive of a dialogue with India, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should visit his country to kickstart the peace process.
Pakistan on Thursday dismissed reports that Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar was being treated in a Karachi hospital, with the help of officials of the Inter Services Intelligence, after he suffered a heart attack."This is hackneyed speculation with no substance whatsoever," said Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit.He said such reports were aimed at maligning Pakistan and creating misgivings.
Amid speculation that his party was being covertly backed by the Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Monday vowed to "quit politics" if the claim was proved.
Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has moved the Lahore high court seeking direction for the Pakistan government to defend him, Inter Services Intelligence officians and others before a United States court, which has issued summons to them in connection with the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
United States-based Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, accused of being an Inter-Services Intelligence agent and trying to influence American policy on Kashmir has pleaded guilty on federal charges of spying for the Pakistani agency.
In a major embarrassment to the Inter-Services Intelligence, United States-based Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to federal charges of spying for the Pakistani spy agency and illegally lobbying the Congress to influence the American policy on Kashmir.
The Inter-Services Intelligence does not act independently and takes instructions from Pakistani army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, says a former top aide of United States President Barack Obama, asserting that the spy agency has links with the dreaded Haqqani network of Taliban.
