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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan: Recent attacks raise questions about intelligence body |
| 2008-08-23 |
| (AKI) - While Pakistan's ruling coalition teeters on the brink of collapse, there is growing speculation about the power of the country's intelligence agency and its links with Taliban militants. Former premier Nawaz Sharif threatened to quit the ruling coalition on Thursday if judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf are not restored. The leaders of the coalition that won elections in February, headed by the party of slain ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, were expected to hold crucial talks on Friday to discuss the judiciary and potential candidates to replace Musharraf. But several violent attacks in Pakistan and neighbouring Pakistan this week have raised concerns about the resurgence of the Taliban and the role of the country's intelligence agency in aiding terrorist attacks. A senior US State Department official told The Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday that Pakistan needed to step up efforts to control the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency after Musharraf's resignation. "The position of the ISI has always been ambiguous, [but] they may have been more directly involved in actions in more recent months because of lack of supervision," the official. He was reportedly referring to "a lot of allegations" that the agency was involved in the 7 July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Persistent US intelligence reports that al-Qaeda has entrenched its position in "safe havens" in Pakistan near the Afghan border, has deepened Washington's doubts about the future outlook for intelligence co-operation. Senior western diplomats told the FT that last month the US confronted Pakistani officials with what it considered credible evidence documenting the ISI's role in backing extremist Islamist groups, including those involved with the Taliban. Returning from a trip to Pakistan last month, Mike Mullen, head of the US joint chiefs of staff, had declined to comment on whether the ISI could be weaned off its contacts with Islamist and radical groups, cultivated during Afghanistan's wars in the 1980s and 1990s. Relations between the ISI and jihadi networks developed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 when it was mainly responsible for training and arming militants opposed to the regime. This week's attempted suicide attack on a US military base, Camp Salerno in the province of Khost and the fierce clashes that killed 10 French soldiers and injured 21 others has raised serious questions about the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. This week the London-based think-tank, the Senlis Council , said international efforts to contain Taliban insurgents had failed and it called for urgent action to stop the cross-border movement of militants from Pakistan. The attacks in Afghanistan are becoming more serious, not only in relation to the number of victims but in relation to the sophistocation of the attacks - suicide bomb blasts, car bombs and ambushes. Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan's army chief, travelled to Kabul on Tuesday for talks with top US and Afghan commanders, immediately provoking speculation about a possible military initiative to counter insurgents in the border region. Joint co-operation had suffered after Pakistan accused the US of killing several members of its Frontier Corps militia in a strike in June. The US has continued to attack suspected Taliban targets inside Pakistan, despite protests by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, Pakistan's current Prime Minister. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Yes, maybe if some upper echelon ISI bodies were found face down in some roadside ditches, some progress could be made... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-08-23 12:16 |
| #1 "The position of the ISI has always been ambiguous." Only to some. Only to some. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-08-23 09:44 |