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.
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.
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.
Amid increasing pressure by the United States to rein in the Inter Services Intelligence for its involvement in terrorist activities, including the Indian embassy blast in Kabul, Pakistan has said it would investigate the matter if evidence were presented to it against any of its nationals."If any evidence were to be presented against any individual in Pakistan, or against the interest of Pakistan's neighbours, then the government would certainly act on that evidence.
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."
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.
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.
Diplomatic and other sources say the two organisations believe they can play a role because they are intrinsically linked to policy-making in Pakistan.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Both were engaged in spying for the ISI and a number of documents related to Indian army were recovered from their possession, he said.
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.
Sharp shooter Asgar Ali and four persons arrested from Hyderabad, four agents of the Pakistan-based Inter-Services Intelligence and three persons from Ahmedabad, who were arrested by the city crime branch, were booked under the act.
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.
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 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.
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
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'.
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 Hyderabad task force police on Sunday arrested 14 people from Bangladesh, suspected to be Inter Services Intelligence agents, at the Secunderabad railway station.
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.
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?
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.
Chidambaram, who chose not to make any mention of Pakistan in his opening remarks at the India Today conclave in New Delhi, voiced New Delhi's concerns over Pakistan-sponsored terrorism during the question and answer session. In a bid to counter the charge, the Pakistan envoy raised the issue of alleged Indian involvement in Balochistan and about the activities of Indian consultates in Afghanistan.
The report regarding Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani extending the tenure of Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha by a year clearly suggests that nothing much has changed in the country and the two still rule the roost, says an article in the New York Times.While experts believe that Kayani's move may also pave the way for his own extension in service, the 'weak' civilian set-up in Pakistan has no other choice.
Pakistan's report on its probe into the dossier provided by India into the Mumbai terror attacks was on Monday examined in Islamabad, by a top level cabinet committee, headed by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, before being handed over to New Delhi.
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.
The diversion of security to protect the Shah Rukh Khan movie My Name is Khan offered an opportune moment for the Inter-Services-Intelligence to engineer the terror attack in Pune, chairman of All India Anti-Terrorist Front M S Bitta alleged on Wednesday.
The government on Monday said it cannot rule out the possibility of the involvement of a foreign hand in the Pune blast, including a David Headley link, even as it disclosed that an Inter Services Intelligence -sponsored 'Karachi Project' was going on to indoctrinate Indian youth on to the path of terror.Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said there is definitely a Headley link to the Pune blast, since it took place at the German Bakery.
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.
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.
B Raman recollects how VP Singh was taken for a ride at the taxpayers' expense when he was prime minister
The opposition party was reacting after BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia asked Ansari and the Congress to come clean on the claims of Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza that he had visited India five times during the Congress-led UPA rule and passed on sensitive information collected here to his country's spy agency ISI.
Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday refuted the allegation that he had invited to India a Pakistani journalist who has claimed to have spied for Inter-Services Intelligence, and said a 'litany of falsehood' has been unleashed against him in sections of media and by a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson.