A hitherto unheard of militant group called the Asian Tigers on Monday issued a video of two top former ISI officials and a journalist whom it claimed to have kidnapped in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt.
If peace and stability is to come to South Asia, links between Pakistan's military, Inter-Services Intelligence and the violent extremist jihadi groups the ISI created, must be severed, said Steve Coll, president and CEO of The New America Foundation and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars.
A United States commission on religious freedom on Tuesday expressed deep concern over links between Pakistan's extremist groups and the Inter Services Intelligence, saying some of the madrasas in the country are creating 'an atmosphere of intolerance'. The commission is also concerned about the alleged role of Pakistan's Islamic schools, or madrasas, in providing ideological training to religious extremists and in creating an atmosphere of intolerance.
The 26/11 trial is expected to take an interesting turn with the counsel for Fahim Ansari contemplating the inclusion of Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's name as the main conspirator.
Senior government sources said the charge of carrying out a Pulwama scale terror attack bigger was given to the Jaish-e-Mohammed headed by Maulana Masood Azhar by Pakistan Army's Inter-Services Intelligence.
Inter-Services Intelligence head Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, a close aide of Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is heading for a likely rare second term.
The United States has made it clear that its first strategic dialogue with Pakistan next week is not being held at India's expense, even as it said it is 'pleased' that Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is part of Islamabad's delegation as there can be no such talks without the military participation.
"How can you have a strategic dialogue without including the military," Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke told reporters at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
Agitated over confusing signals emanating from Pakistan with regard to Mumbai attacks, India on Friday slammed it for not responding through proper channel and felt that Islamabad was doing it deliberately to hide the truth about involvement of state actors in the carnage.
If Imran Khan delays his assent to General Bajwa's recommendations any further, it could imply he is taking stock of possible serious dissent within Pakistan's top army echelons, says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan Desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
A former leading Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence officer, who claimed to have been a mentor of Taliban, has been killed almost a year after he was kidnapped by militants in the Waziristan tribal region.
Retired Vice Admiral P S Das said the methodology of 26/11 clearly indicated that the terrorists had received months of professional training, most likely from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.
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Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar, a former operative of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, has said that the US must directly talk to Afghan Taliban chief and his protg Mullah Omar to resolve the political situation in Afghanistan.
The Pakistan government has blocked a resolution moved in the UN Security Council for imposing sanctions against former Inter-Services-Intelligence chief retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul over his alleged links with al-Qaeda and Taliban, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday.
Finally, let us recognise that no one is going to fight our battles for us, that only we can safeguard our security and integrity through our own actions, and that any outside help, whether by a super power or the international community, can only be supplementary to our own efforts.
Amid India's suspicions of the involvement of the Inter Services Intelligence in the planning of Mumbai terror strikes, the chief of the Pakistani spy agency on Friday called on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad.The Director General of the ISI, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met Gilani and briefed him on the prevailing security situation, an official statement said.No further details about the meeting were available.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Saturday night to discuss the fallout of the coordinated terrorist strikes in Mumbai amid India's accusations about possible Pakistani links to the attacks. This was the second meeting on Satruday of the three top leaders
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday accepted a request from his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to send the ISI chief to India for sharing of information related to the terrorist attack in Mumbai.
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.
A Pakistani court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking asylum in the name of 'holy war' for five American Muslim youths recently arrested in the country for allegedly planning terror attacks, saying that it was not the duty of the judiciary to define 'jihad'.
General Ehsan Ul Haq, former director of the Inter Services Intelligence, has urged the United States to stop demonising the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and pressuring Pakistan to go after it, saying it's not a priority for the Pakistan army.
The listing in the Shuhada's (Martyrs') Corner of the website www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk named Naik Zulfiqar Ahmed as the ISI operative who died in New Delhi's Ganga Ram Hospital on November 16, 2007.
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.
It has been two years since the horrific 26/11 attacks shook Mumbai and India, but there are still plenty of lose ends in the case thanks to the fact the Pakistani spy agency Inter Services Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Tayiba relied on operatives from around the globe to execute the dastardly attacks, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
"I have not seen anything to corroborate that report," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference on Thursday when asked about the reported allegations by former Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani that Pakistan had sent between 10,000 to 15,000 of its men along with the Taliban to capture Kabul and Afghanistan.
Acting on a tip-off, the commissioner's special investigation cell arrested the accused on Friday near Secunderabad railway station while moving under suspicious circumstances with a travel bag.
The Los Angeles Times quoted officials as saying that the payments have triggered intense debate within the US government, because of 'long-standing suspicions that the ISI continues to help Taliban who undermine American efforts in Afghanistan and provide sanctuary to Al Qaeda members in Pakistan'.
Aware of simmering dissensions within the top echelons of the army, Munir has moved slowly in reshuffling senior generals, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
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.
Kerala is becoming a breeding centre for terrorists, particularly Inter Services Intelligence activists, Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Indra Sena Reddy said on Monday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
