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بین الخدماتی استخبارات | |
![]() Insignia of the ISI | |
Intelligence agency overview | |
---|---|
Formed | 1 January 1948 |
Headquarters | Aabpara, Islamabad, Pakistan [1] 33°42′14.3″N73°04′47.0″E / 33.703972°N 73.079722°E |
Motto | خُذُواحِذرُکُم[Quran 4:71] "take your precautions" (heraldic slogan) |
Employees | ~10,000 (2009) [2] |
Intelligence agency executive | |
Child Intelligence agency |
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; Urdu : بین الخدماتی استخبارات, romanized: bayn al-khidmati estekhbarat) is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.
The ISI primarily consists of serving military officers drawn on secondment from the three service branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces: the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, and Pakistan Air Force, hence the name "Inter-Services"; the agency also recruits civilians. Since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan on the recommendation of the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three officers for the position. As of March 2024 [update] , the ISI is headed by Nadeem Anjum, a lieutenant general. [3] The ISI director-general reports directly to both the prime minister and the Chief of Army Staff.
The agency gained global recognition and fame in the 1980s when it backed the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War in the former Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Over the course of the conflict, the ISI worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom to run Operation Cyclone, a program to train and fund the mujahideen in Afghanistan with support from China, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim nations. [4] [5] [6]
Following the dissolution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, the ISI provided strategic support and intelligence to the Taliban against the Northern Alliance during the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s. [7] [8] [9] The ISI has strong links with jihadist groups, particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Its special warfare unit is the Covert Action Division. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees the insurgency in Kashmir by arming separatist militant groups. [14] [15]
The Inter-Services Intelligence was created in 1948 following the first Kashmir war, which had exposed weaknesses in intelligence gathering, sharing, and coordination between the army, air force, navy, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI).[ citation needed ] The ISI was structured to be operated by officers from the three main military services and to specialize in the collection, analysis, and assessment of external military and non-military intelligence.[ citation needed ] The ISI was the brainchild of the former British Indian Army Major General Sir Robert Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army. He selected Colonel Shahid Hamid to set up the agency. Initially, the ISI had no role in the collection of internal intelligence, except for the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.[ citation needed ]
Naval commander Syed Mohammad Ahsan, who served as deputy director of Naval Intelligence and helped formulate ISI procedure, undertook and managed the recruitment and expansion of the ISI. After the 1958 coup d'état, all national intelligence agencies was directly controlled by the president and Chief Martial Law Administrator. The maintenance of national security, which was the principal function of these agencies, resulted in the consolidation of the Ayub regime. Any criticism of the regime was seen as a threat to national security. [16]
On 5 July 1977 through Operation Fair Play, the ISI began collecting intelligence on the Pakistan Communist Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party. [17] The Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s saw the enhancement of the ISI's covert operations. A special Afghanistan section known as the SS Directorate was created under the command of Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf to oversee day-to-day operations in Afghanistan. Officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in the United States, and "many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen". [18]
Many analysts (mainly Indian and American) believe that the ISI provides support to militant groups, though others think these allegations remain unsubstantiated. [19] [20]
The ISI has often been accused of playing a role in major terrorist attacks across India including militancy in Kashmir, the July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings, [21] the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, [22] the 2006 Varanasi bombings, the August 2007 Hyderabad bombings, [23] and the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. [24] [25]
The ISI has been accused of supporting Taliban forces [26] and recruiting and training mujahideen [27] to fight in Afghanistan [28] and Kashmir. Based on communication interceptions, US intelligence agencies concluded Pakistan's ISI was behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on 7 July 2008, a charge that the governments of India and Afghanistan had laid previously. [29] It is believed to be aiding these organisations in eradicating perceived enemies or those opposed to their cause, including India, Russia, China, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other members of NATO. [30] [31] Satellite imagery from the Federal Bureau of Investigation [32] suggest the existence of several terrorist camps in Pakistan, with at least one militant admitting to being trained in the country. As part of the ongoing Kashmir conflict, Pakistan is alleged to be backing separatist militias. [33] Many nonpartisan sources believe that officials within Pakistan's military and the ISI sympathise with and aid Islamic terrorists, saying that the "ISI has provided covert but well-documented support to terrorist groups active in Kashmir, including the al-Qaeda affiliate Jaish-e-Mohammed". [34]
General Javed Nasir confessed to assisting the besieged Bosnian Muslims, supporting Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang despite a UN arms embargo, rebel Muslim groups in the Philippines, and some religious groups in Central Asia. [35] The National Intelligence Coordination Committee (NICC) of Pakistan is headed by the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence. The overarching intelligence coordination body was given assent by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in November 2020. It held its inaugural session on 24 June 2021, marking the date the committee became functional. [36] [37]
A director-general, who is traditionally a serving lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army,[ citation needed ] heads the ISI. [38] Three deputy director generals, who are serving two-star military officers, report directly to the director general with each deputy heading three wings respectively: [39]
Military officers of the three branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces and paramilitary forces such as ANF, ASF, Pakistan Rangers, Frontier Corps, Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts and Maritime Security Agency as well as civilian officers from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan Customs, Police, Judiciary and Ministry of Defence make up ISI's general staff. They are recruited on deputations for three to four years and enhance the ISI's professional competence. According to some experts, the ISI is the largest intelligence agency in the world in terms of total staff. While the total number has never been made public, experts estimate around 10,000 officers and staff, which does not include informants or assets. [40]
The wings are further divided into various directorates, which are sub-divided into departments, each directorate is usually headed by a major general, air marshal, or rear admiral.
Directorates | Name | Rank |
---|---|---|
Director-General, Security and Administration (DG S&A) | Amir Naveed Warraich | Major general |
Director-General Analysis (DG A) | Shahid Amir Afsar | Major general |
Director-General H (DG H) | Syed Imdad Hussain Shah | Major general |
Director-General Counter-Terrorism (DG CT) | Akif Iqbal | Major general |
Director-General Personnel (DG P) | Muhammad Kashif Azad | Major general |
Director-General, K (DG K) | Muhammad Hassan Khattak | Major general |
Director-General X (DG X) | Muhammad Shahbaz Tabassum | Major general |
Director-General, F (DG F) | Faheem Amer | Major general |
Director-General, Technical (DG T) | Adeel Haider Minhas | Major general |
Director-General, Counter Intelligence (DG CI) | Faisal Naseer | Major general |
Director-General, Media (DG M) | Muhammad Saleem | Rear admiral |
According to Syed Irfan Raza, the director general of the ISI is among the most powerful posts in Pakistan. [38] For example, according to Mohammad Sohail, shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange went down in October 2021 over concerns regarding the appointment of the ISI chief. The benchmark KSE-100 index fell 1.51%. [44] [45] [46] According to retired air marshal Shahzad Chaudhry, three to four names are provided by the Chief of Army Staff, and the prime minister selects the director general from that list, [47] and the appointed serves for two to three years. [47] According to Ansar Abbasi, before 2021, the appointment process of the Director-General followed no formal protocol other than verbal discussion between the prime minister and the head of the army. [48]
Syed Shahid Hamid was the first head of the ISI. Hamid is said to have supported Field Marshal Ayub Khan's rise to power. [49] After his retirement, he helped President Muhammed Zia-ul-Haq. [50]
Director general | Start of term | End of term | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Brigadier | 14 July 1948 | 20 June 1950 |
2 | Brigadier Mirza Hamid Hussain [51] | 21 June 1950 | May 1951 |
3 | Colonel Muhammad Afzal Malik [51] | May 1951 | April 1953 |
4 | Brigadier | April 1953 | August 1955 |
5 | Brigadier [51] Sher Bahadur | August 1955 | September 1957 |
6 | Brigadier [51] Muhammad Hayat | September 1957 | October 1959 |
7 | Brigadier | October 1959 | May 1966 |
8 | Major General | May 1966 | September 1971 |
9 | Major General | September 1971 [53] | 16 September 1978 [54] |
10 | Lieutenant General | 17 September 1978 | 20 June 1979 |
11 | Lieutenant General | 21 June 1979 | 29 March 1987 |
12 | Lieutenant General | 29 March 1987 | 29 May 1989 |
13 | Lieutenant General | 30 May 1989 | August 1990 |
14 | Lieutenant General | August 1990 | 13 March 1992 |
15 | Lieutenant General | 14 March 1992 | 13 May 1993 |
16 | Lieutenant General | 14 May 1993 | October 1995 |
17 | Lieutenant General | October 1995 | October 1998 [54] |
18 | Lieutenant General | October 1998 | 12 October 1999 |
19 | Lieutenant General | 20 October 1999 | 7 October 2001 |
20 | Lieutenant General | 7 October 2001 | 5 October 2004 |
21 | Lieutenant General | 5 October 2004 | 8 October 2007 |
22 | Lieutenant General | 9 October 2007 | 29 September 2008 |
23 | Lieutenant General | 1 October 2008 | 18 March 2012 |
24 | Lieutenant General | 19 March 2012 | 7 November 2014 |
25 | Lieutenant General | 7 November 2014 | 11 December 2016 |
26 | Lieutenant General | 11 December 2016 | 25 October 2018 |
27 | Lieutenant General | 25 October 2018 | 16 June 2019 |
28 | Lieutenant General | 17 June 2019 | 19 Nov 2021 |
29 | Lieutenant General | 20 Nov 2021 | Incumbent |
The army has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history and has always been unwilling to see its influence being compromised by any civilian leaders. [55] In the 1990s, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto appointed retired army officer Shamsur Rahman Kallu as director-general, but army leaders refused to cooperate with Kallu because he had refused to engage in martial-law duties under the previous dictator. In October 1998, Ziauddin Butt was chosen as director general. Though Butt was not the preferred choice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he grew close with him, and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf took over important ISI files. During a military coup a year later, Musharraf arrested Butt, who had been promoted to Chief of Army Staff by Sharif. [56] [49] [57]
On 6 October 2016, the daily newspaper Dawn published a report about a government meeting allegedly arranged by Sharif. The article detailed a presentation by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry about international pressure to crack down on Pakistan's extremist segments such as Masood Azhar, the Jaish-i-Mohmmad, Hafiz Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Haqqani network. According to Ghazi Salahuddin of The News International, controversy ensued after the October meeting and the Dawn report, which lingered until May 2016. [58] [59] During the October 2016 meeting, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif allegedly revealed that, whenever action had been taken against certain extremist groups by civilian authorities, the security agency had worked secretly to free the arrested parties. [58] [59] According to Salahuddin Ghazi, information minister Pervaiz Rashid lost his portfolio over the Dawn news leak, and a government notification was released about the civilian government's decision after the meeting. On 29 April 2017, the director general released a tweet that said: "Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected." Ghazi stated that a meeting was eventually held between the prime minister and the chief of army staff, and a press conference was held to announce the decision to withdraw the tweet. [59]
Pakistan's mainstream media reported on the October 2021 constitutional rift between civil and armed wings over the appointment of the director general post only after ministers spoke on the matter. [54] [60] On 6 October 2021, the Pakistan military's media affairs wing announced the replacement of Faiz Hameed with Nadeem Anjum. [61] After two days, it became apparent on social media that the federal government of Pakistan had yet to issue any formal notification for the appointment of the new director general. [54] Rumors became more substantiated when Hameed attended the National Security Committee meeting instead of the expected new director general. [54] [60]
On 13 October 2021, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry informed media that the process of appointing a new director general was in progress, and that the selection is Prime Minister Imran Khan's prerogative. He also noted that the army chief and the prime minister agreed on following correct procedures of appointment according to the Constitution.
Malik Dogar, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, later said in a talk show that PM Imran Khan wanted Hameed to continue as DG ISI for some more months after taking into consideration Hameed's expertise on the situation in Afghanistan. Dogar further stated that during the cabinet meeting, the prime minister stressed that if the army is a respected institution then the PM Office is also a respected one. [62] [63] [38]
The ISI is headquartered in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The complex consists of various low-rise buildings separated by lawns and fountains. The entrance to the complex is next to a private hospital. Declan Walsh from The Guardian said that the entrance is "suitably discreet: no sign, just a plainclothes officer packing a pistol who directs visitors through a chicane of barriers, soldiers, and sniffer dogs". [1] Walsh said that the complex "resembles a well-funded private university" and that the buildings are "neatly tended," the lawns are "smooth," and the fountains are "tinkling." He described the central building, which houses the director general's office on the top floor, as "a modern structure with a round, echoing lobby". [1]
Both civilians and members of the armed forces can join the ISI. For civilians, recruitment is advertised and handled by both the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC); they are considered employees of the Ministry of Defence. The FPSC conducts examinations that test the candidate's knowledge of current affairs, English, and various analytical abilities. Based on the results, the FPSC shortlists the candidates and sends the list to the ISI who conduct the initial background checks. Selected candidates are then invited for an interview which is conducted by a joint committee comprising both ISI and FPSC officials, and are then sent to the Defence Services Intelligence Academy (DSIA) for six months of training. The candidates are transferred to different sections for open source information where they serve for five years. After five years of basic service, officers are entrusted with sensitive jobs and considered part of the core team. [64]
Indian intelligence agencies have claimed they have proof of ISI involvement with the Naxalites. ISI is also reportedly engaged in supporting Khalistani Separatism in India. [85] A classified report accessed by the Indian newspaper Asian Age said "the ISI in particular wants Naxals to cause large-scale damage to infrastructure projects and industrial units operating in the interior parts of the country where ISI's own terror network is non-existent". [86]
The ISI was accused of being involved in the Mehran bank scandal, in which high-ranking ISI and Army officers were allegedly given large sums of money by Yunus Habib, owner of the Mehran Bank, to deposit the ISI's foreign exchange reserves in his bank. [100]
Qatar
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Critics of the ISI say that it has become a state within a state and not accountable enough. Some analysts say that it is because intelligence agencies around the world remain secretive. Critics argue the institution should be more accountable to the president or the prime minister. [137] The Pakistani government disbanded the ISI's political wing in 2008 after its discovery. [138]
During the Cold War, the ISI and the CIA worked together to send spy planes over the Soviet Union. [139] The two organisations also worked closely during the Soviet–Afghan War supporting groups such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami and Jalaluddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network. [140]
Some[ who? ] report the ISI and CIA stepped up cooperation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to kill and capture senior Al Qaeda leaders such as Sheikh Younis Al Mauritan and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the planner of the 9/11 attacks who was residing in Pakistan. Pakistan claims that around 100 top level al-Qaeda leaders/operators were killed or arrested by the ISI. [141] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Pakistan is paying a "big price for supporting the U.S. war against terror groups. [...] I think it is important to note that as they have made these adjustments in their own assessment of their national interests, they're paying a big price for it." [142]
Other senior international officials maintain that senior Al Qaeda leaders such as bin Laden have been hidden by the ISI in major settled areas of Pakistan with the full knowledge of the Pakistani military leadership. [143] A December 2011 analysis report by the Jamestown Foundation came to the conclusion that
In spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani General Ziauddin Butt (a.k.a. General Ziauddin Khawaja) revealed at a conference on Pakistani-U.S. relations in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director-General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah (retd.), had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad. [144]
Pakistani general Ziauddin Butt said bin Laden had been hidden in Abbottabad by the ISI "with the full knowledge" of General Pervez Musharraf [144] but later denied making any such statement, saying his words were altered by the media, he said: "It is the hobby of the Western media to distort the facts for their own purposes." [145] U.S. military officials have increasingly said they do not notify Pakistani officials before conducting operations against the Afghan Taliban or Al Qaeda, because they fear Pakistani officials may tip them off. [146] International officials have accused the ISI of continuing to support and even lead the Taliban during the 2001-2021 War in Afghanistan. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen stated:
The fact remains that the Quetta Shura [Taliban] and the Haqqani Network operate from Pakistan with impunity ... Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops and civilians as well as US soldiers. ... For example, we believe the Haqqani Network—which has long enjoyed the support and protection of the Pakistani government ... is, in many ways, a strategic arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. [147]
The Associated Press reported that "the president said Mullen's statement 'expressed frustration' over the insurgent safe havens in Pakistan. But Obama said 'the intelligence is not as clear as we might like in terms of what exactly that relationship is.' Obama added that whether Pakistan's ties with the Haqqani network are active or passive, Pakistan has to deal with it." [148] [149]
The Guantanamo Bay files leak showed that the US authorities unofficially consider the ISI a terrorist organization that was equally as dangerous as Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and many allegations of it supporting terrorist activities have been made. [150] [151]
In 2017, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused the ISI of having ties to terror groups. [152] In a Senate hearing, Dunford told members of the U.S. Senate: "It is clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups." [153]
India has accused the ISI of plotting the 1993 Bombay bombings. [154] According to the United States diplomatic cables leak, the ISI had previously shared intelligence information with Israel regarding possible terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli sites in India in late 2008. [155] The ISI is also accused of supporting pro independence militias in Jammu and Kashmir [156] while Pakistan denies all such claims, [157] [158] [159] or says it gives them moral support only. [160]
The ISI has been accused of using designated terrorist groups and militants to conduct proxy wars against its neighbors. [161] [162] [163] According to Grant Holt and David H. Gray, "The agency specializes in utilizing terrorist organizations as proxies for Pakistani foreign policy, covert action abroad, and controlling domestic politics." [164] James Forest says, "There has been increasing proof from counter-terrorism organizations that militants and the Taliban continue to receive assistance from the ISI, as well as the establishment of camps to train terrorists on Pakistani territory." [165] All external operations are carried out under the supervision of the ISI's S Wing. [166] Joint Intelligence/North is responsible for conducting operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan. [167] The Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB) provides support with communications to groups in Jammu and Kashmir. [167] According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, both former members of the National Security Council, the ISI acted as a "kind of terrorist conveyor belt" radicalizing young men in the Madrassas in Pakistan and delivering them to training camps affiliated with or run by Al-Qaeda and from there moving them into Jammu and Kashmir to launch attacks. [168]
Since the 1990s, the ISI began communicating with the jihadists who emerged from the conflict against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and by 2000 most militant groups operating in Kashmir were based in Pakistan or were pro-Pakistan. These groups are used to conduct a low-intensity conflict against India. [169] According to Stephen P. Cohen and John Wilson, the ISI's aid to and creation of designated terrorist groups and religious extremist groups is well-documented. [170] [171] The ISI has been accused of having close ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who carried out the attacks in Mumbai in 2008. [172] The organisation has also given aid to Hizbul Mujahideen. [173] Terrorism expert Gus Martin said, "The ISI has a long history of supporting designated terrorist groups and pro-Independence groups operating in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir which fight against Indian interests." [160] [174] The ISI also helped with the founding of the group Jaish-e-Mohammed. [175]
The group Hizbul Mujahideen was created as the Kashmiri branch of Jamaat-i-Islami. [176] It was reported that JI founded Hizbul Mujahideen at the request of the ISI to counter the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front who are advocates for the independence of Kashmir. [177] The failure of 1987 elections in Kashmir, and afterwards the arrest of Muhammad Yusuf, a.k.a. Syed Salahuddin, led to the events that created armed struggle in the valley.
There have been three incarnations of Al-Badr. According to Tomsen, the ISI, in conjunction with Jamaat-e-Islami, formed the first Al-Badr, who resisted the Indian-trained influx of Mukti Bahini in Bangladesh in the 1970s. [178] [179]
The ISI supported Al-Qaeda during the war along with the CIA against the Soviet government, through the Taliban, and it is believed by some that there is still contact between Al-Qaeda and the ISI. [180] An assessment by British Intelligence in 2000 into Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan showed the ISI were playing an active role in some of them. [181] In 2002, it was alleged that when the Egyptian investigators tracked down Al-Qaeda member Ahmed Said Khadr in Pakistan, the Egyptian authorities informed Pakistani authorities of his location. However, the Afghan Taliban at night came in a car and took Khadir along with them to Afghanistan. The next day, Pakistani authorities claimed they were unable to capture Khadir. [182] The leak in 2012 of e-mails from Stratfor claimed papers captured during all the compounds during the raid in Abbottabad on Osama bin Laden's compound showed up to 12 ISI officials knew where he was and that Bin Laden had been in regular contact with the ISI. [183]
Despite the allegations, Steve Coll stated that as of 2019 there is no direct evidence showing Pakistani knowledge of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, even by a rogue or compartmented faction within the government, other than the circumstantial fact of bin Laden's compound being located near (albeit not directly visible from) the Pakistan Military Academy. Documents captured from the Abbottabad compound generally show that bin Laden was wary of contact with ISI and Pakistani police, especially in light of Pakistan's role in the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; it has also been suggested that the $25 million U.S. reward for information leading to bin Laden would have been enticing to Pakistani officers given their reputation for corruption. The compound itself, although unusually tall, was less conspicuous than sometimes envisaged by Americans, given the common local habit of walling off homes for protection against violence or to ensure the privacy of female family members. [184]
Al-Qaeda has repeatedly labelled ISI their enemy, and claimed the Pakistani military and intelligence are their main targets in Pakistan. [185] In 2019, Ayman al-Zawahari labelled ISI and the Pakistani military a "puppet" of the United States in a video message. [186] [187]
The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was founded in the 1980s by the ISI to fight against Indian interests. [188]
in 1984, under the orders of Zia-ul-Haq, the ISI prepared for a rebellion, which was to be set in motion in 1991. [189]
The ISI allegedly have links to the Haqqani network [190] and contributed to their funding. [191] It is widely believed the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008 was planned with the help of the ISI. [192] A report in 2008 from the US director of National Intelligence stated that the ISI provides intelligence and funding to help with attacks against the International Security Assistance Force, the Afghan government, and Indian targets. [193] On 5 November 2014, Lieutenant-General Joseph Anderson, a senior commander for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said that the Haqqani network is now "fractured" like the Taliban in a Pentagon-hosted video briefing from Afghanistan. "They are fractured. They are fractured like the Taliban is. That's based pretty much on Pakistan's operations in North Waziristan this entire summer-fall," he said, acknowledging the effectiveness of Pakistan's military offensive in North Waziristan. "That has very much disrupted their efforts in Afghanistan and has caused them to be less effective in terms of their ability to pull off an attack in Kabul," Anderson added. [194]
Amnesty International published a document concerning the investigation of ISI over the murder of Saleem Shahzad. [195]
Following General Bajwa's retirement, the mother of slain journalist Arshad Sharif requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to formally charge General Bajwa, among other military officers, for the "targeted, premeditated, planned and calculated murder" of her son, claiming members of the military's Public Relations division began threatening Sharif after he emerged as a critic of General Bajwa following the success of the vote-of-no-confidence against Imran Khan, particularly in a program called “Woh Kon Tha”, aired on ARY News, in which Sharif insinuated General Bajwa had a hand in overthrowing his democratically elected Prime Minister. [196] [197]
Read more on 2024 IHC judges' letter
Aljazeera reported [198] that six judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) accused the ISI of interference in judicial matters, citing abduction, torture, and surveillance. Despite assurances from ISI leadership, these claims persisted, leading to an investigation by the Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan. The incident underscored ongoing tensions between Pakistan's judiciary and intelligence agencies, reflecting broader issues of governance and institutional integrity.
Since Pakistan launched offensives on Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other jihadist groups, the country's armed forces, intelligence services (particularly the ISI), military industrial complexes, paramilitary forces, and police forces have come under intense attacks. The ISI has played a major role in targeting these groups and has faced retaliatory strikes as well. As of 2011 [update] , more than 300 ISI officials have been killed. [199] Major incidents when attempts were made to target the ISI include:
In the 1980s the ISI was instrumental in supporting seven Sunni Muslim mujahideen groups in their jihad against the Soviets and was the principal conduit of covert US and Saudi funding. It subsequently played a pivotal role in the emergence of the Taliban (Coll 2005:292) and Pakistan provided significant political, financial, military and logistical support to the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan (1996–2001)(Rashid 2001).
Yet ISI's ambition was greater than its purse. Pakistan's army suffered from acute money problems during 1995. The army commanded the lion's share of Pakistan's budget, but with American aid cut over the nuclear issue, there was not much to go around. ... As it had during the 1980s, ISI needed Saudi intelligence, and it needed wealthy Islamist patrons from the Persian Gulf. ... The Pakistanis were advertising the Taliban to the Saudis as an important new force on the Afghan scene. ... The scale of Saudi payments and subsidies to Pakistan's army and intelligence service during the mid-1990s has never been disclosed. Judging by the practices of the previous decade, direct transfers and oil price subsidies to Pakistan's military probably amounted in some years to at least several hundred million dollars. This bilateral support helped ISI build up its proxy jihad forces in both Kashmir and Afghanistan.
Javed Nasir confesses that despite the U.N. ban on supplying arms to the besieged Bosnians, he successfully airlifted sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles which turned the tide in favor of Bosnian Muslims and forced the Serbs to lift the siege. Under his leadership, the ISI also got involved in supporting Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang Province, rebel Muslim groups in the Philippines, and some religious groups in Central Asia.
Editorial quote:"With the markets constantly in flux over the past few days, the people of the country wonder whether their fates are in fact linked to the signing of a summary or notification"
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, highlighted the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency's role in sponsoring the Haqqani Network—including attacks on American forces in Afghanistan. 'The fact remains that the Quetta Shura [Taliban] and the Haqqani Network operate from Pakistan with impunity,' Mullen said in his written testimony. 'Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops and civilians as well as US soldiers.' Mullen continued: 'For example, we believe the Haqqani Network—which has long enjoyed the support and protection of the Pakistani government and is, in many ways, a strategic arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency—is responsible for the September 13th attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.'
Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni Jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs, but also includes people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the US and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks. The organization is designated as a terrorist group by NATO, the UN Security Council, the European Union, and various countries around the world.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he participated in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union and supported the activities of the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Bin Laden is considered to have been the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Operation Infinite Reach was the codename for American cruise missile strikes on al-Qaeda bases that were launched concurrently across two continents on 20 August 1998. Launched by the U.S. Navy, the strikes hit the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, and a camp in Khost Province, Afghanistan, in retaliation for al-Qaeda's August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and injured over 4,000 others. Operation Infinite Reach was the first time the United States acknowledged a preemptive strike against a violent non-state actor.
The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015. Within SAC there are two separate groups: SAC/SOG for tactical paramilitary operations and SAC/PAG for covert political action.
Lieutenant General Hamid GulHI(M) SI(M) SBt was a Pakistani three-star general and defence analyst. Gul was notable for serving as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989. During his tenure, Gul played an instrumental role in directing ISI support to Afghan resistance groups against Soviet forces in return for funds and weapons from the US, during the Soviet–Afghan War, in co-operation with the CIA.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, the United States declared the war on terror and subsequently led a multinational military operation against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The stated goal was to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the attacks under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, and to deny Islamist militants a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by toppling the Taliban government. The United Kingdom was a key ally of the United States, offering support for military action from the start of the invasion preparations. The American military presence in Afghanistan greatly bolstered the Northern Alliance, which had been locked in a losing fight with the Taliban during the Afghan Civil War. Prior to the beginning of the United States' war effort, the Taliban had seized around 85% of Afghanistan's territory as well as the capital city of Kabul, effectively confining the Northern Alliance to Badakhshan Province and smaller surrounding areas. The American-led invasion on October 7, 2001, marked the first phase of what would become the 20-year-long War in Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden, the founder and former leader of al-Qaeda, went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States and/or its allies for his role in the September 11 attacks, and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999. After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, his whereabouts became unclear, and various rumours about his health, continued role in al-Qaeda, and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.
Several sources have alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ties with Osama bin Laden's faction of "Afghan Arab" fighters when it armed Mujahideen groups to fight the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War.
The Afghanistan conflict began in 1978 and has coincided with several notable operations by the United States (U.S.) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The first operation, code-named Operation Cyclone, began in mid-1979, during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter. It financed and eventually supplied weapons to the anti-communist mujahideen guerrillas in Afghanistan following an April 1978 coup by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and throughout the nearly ten-year military occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, supported an expansion of the Reagan Doctrine, which aided the mujahideen along with several other anti-Soviet resistance movements around the world.
This is a list of activities ostensibly carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) within Pakistan. It has been alleged by such authors as Ahmed Rashid that the CIA and ISI have been waging a clandestine war. The Afghan Taliban—with whom the United States was officially in conflict—was headquartered in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas during the war and according to some reports is largely funded by the ISI. The Pakistani government denies this.
The Pakistani Taliban, formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war, but the two groups have separate operation and command structures.
Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, HI(M) is a retired three-star rank army general of the Pakistan Army. He was the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the main intelligence service of Pakistan from October 2008 until March 2012. He was due to reach the age of superannuation on 18 March 2011 but received an extension of one year, and retired in March 2012. Pasha was replaced by Lieutenant General Zaheerul Islam. In 2011, Pasha was named as one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine.
Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism refers to the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism through the backing of various designated terrorist organizations. Pakistan has been frequently accused by various countries, including its neighbours Afghanistan, Iran, and India, as well as by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, of involvement in a variety of terrorist activities in both its local region of South Asia and beyond. Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have been described as an effective safe haven for terrorists by Western media and the United States Secretary of Defense, while India has accused Pakistan of perpetuating the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by providing financial support and armaments to militant groups, as well as by sending state-trained terrorists across the Line of Control and de facto India–Pakistan border to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and India proper, respectively. According to an analysis published by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2008, Pakistan was reportedly, with the possible exception of Iran, perhaps the world's most active sponsor of terrorist groups; aiding these groups that pose a direct threat to the United States. Pakistan's active participation has caused thousands of deaths in the region; all these years Pakistan has been supportive to several terrorist groups despite several stern warnings from the international community. Daniel Byman, a professor and senior analyst of terrorism and security at the Center For Middle East Policy, also wrote that Pakistan is probably 2008's most active sponsor of terrorism. In 2018, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, suggested that the Pakistani government played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group. In July 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, on an official visit to the United States, acknowledged the presence of some 30,000–40,000 armed terrorists operating on Pakistani soil. He further stated that previous administrations were hiding this truth, particularly from the United States, for the last 15 years during the War on Terror.
The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamist group, built around the family of the same name, that has used asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government in the 21st century. It is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United Nations. It is considered to be a "semi-autonomous" offshoot of the Taliban. It has been most active in eastern Afghanistan and across the border in north-west Pakistan.
Ilyas Kashmiri, also referred to as Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, Mufti Ilyas Kashmiri and Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, was a Pakistani ex-Special Forces Islamist guerrilla insurgent who fought against Indian troops in Kashmir.
Pakistan's role in the War on Terror is a widely discussed topic among policy-makers of various countries, political analysts and international delegates around the world. Pakistan has simultaneously received allegations of harbouring and aiding terrorists and commendation for its anti-terror efforts. Since 2001, the country has also hosted millions of Afghan refugees who fled the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan was alleged to have provided support for Osama bin Laden. These claims have been made both before and after Osama was found living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs on 2 May 2011. The compound itself was located just half a mile from Pakistan's premier military training academy Kakul Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad. In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, American president Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden. "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan", Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News. He also added that the United States was not sure "who or what that support network was." In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned. However, the documents recovered from bin Laden's compound 'contained nothing to support the idea that bin Laden was protected or supported by the Pakistani officials'. Instead, the documents contained criticism of Pakistani military and future plans for attack against the Pakistani military installations.
Pakistan's principal intelligence and covert action agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has historically conducted a number of clandestine operations in its western neighbor, Afghanistan. ISI's covert support to militant jihadist insurgent groups in Afghanistan, the Pashtun-dominated former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Kashmir has earned it a wide reputation as the primary progenitor of many active South Asian jihadist groups.
Abdul Rauf is a Pakistani Deobandi fundamentalist Islamist militant commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Deobandi Islamist militant organization which has carried out Islamist militant activities in India & Afghanistan under the support of Pakistan's main intelligence agency.
The Taliban is a Jihadi Islamist organisation, which has ruled Afghanistan under a theocratic emirate several times in the last 30 years. In August 2021, the Taliban took control of the country, and subsequently established a new government, thus completely succeeding the former. As of late 2022, no country recognizes them as the lawful government of Afghanistan; however, there has been recognition of their de facto governance over the country.