Tag: ISI

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Imran vs Army: Shadow boxing begins in Pakistan

Khan has refused to accept the appointment of the new DG ISI and is not going to back down. Bajwa in turn has stuck to his guns that Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed cannot continue as the Director General of ISI….reports Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha

How long will the Imran Khan government last? This is the big question being asked in Pakistan after the headline grabbing standoff between the Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa became open.

Though Khan’s cabinet colleagues insist that the differences between the PM and army chief have been sorted out amicably after both had a 3-hour marathon one-on-one meeting on Monday night, Pakistani sources think otherwise.

Khan has refused to accept the appointment of the new DG ISI and is not going to back down. Bajwa in turn has stuck to his guns that Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed cannot continue as the Director General of ISI.

Sources claim that work on a plan-b is also in the works. A fresh summary pertaining to the appointment of the new DG ISI will be jointly prepared by the defence ministry and the military, in which three new names for DG ISI would be presented to Khan and Bajwa, but neither Lt Gen Faiz Hameed nor Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum’s name will not be in the list.

Earlier Bajwa had appointed Nadeem as the chief of the ISI replacing Hameed who was sent to Peshawar as a corps commander.

While Hameed’s transfer was the prerogative of the army chief, on paper the appointment of the chief of ISI is done by the PM in consultation with the army chief. Khan told Bajwa that he was not consulted for the appointment of Nadeem as the ISI chief. Sources claim that Bajwa told Khan that it was a strategic military decision and the civilian government should not get involved. But Khat insisted that Hameed should continue as the ISI chief. On that, Khan was told bluntly that someone whom he likes can’t continue on his post “forever”.

“The new DG would be appointed and neither General Faiz nor General Nadeem Anjum would be considered for the post anymore. But the relation between the civilian head and military head.fault lines are hard to fix,” said Pakistani journalist Rauf Klasra.

Pakistani analysts say that PM khan, by interfering in the “internal” matter of the army, may have crossed the red line. They are also wondering why Khan is insisting to keep Faiz Hameed as the ISI chief ?

There is a perception in Pakistan that Imran Khan asked Bajwa to let Hameed continue till December but Bajwa refused. Earlier, he first proposed making the ISI chief’s rank equivalent to that of corps commander ,and then proposed Hameed take on the role of Corps Commander Peshawar as an additional charge. However, Bajwa did not agree to the proposal because this would have led to resentment among his top military leadership.

Pakistan-Army-Chief-Gen-Qamar-Javed-Bajwa-meets-Prime-Minister-Imran-Khan

Pakistani observers say Khan and Bajwa have not been on the same page in the handling of critical foreign and security matters. How to deal with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has become a major friction point, with PM Khan seen as too eager to reconcile with the militant outfit which is responsible for killings of thousands of Pakistani soldiers and civilians.

But in the present geopolitical situation, neither the army chief Bajwa nor Imran Khan are in a position to go for a full showdown and both understand this .So shadow boxing is the only available option.

Yet, Khan himself is well aware that he was “selected” or made “puppet” prime minister because it was the army who rigged the elections to make him a winner. In Pakistan, it is clear as daylight that when push comes to shove, it is the iron-hand of the military, which finally prevails.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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Pak PM receives list of names for ISI chief

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (Source: ANI)

This follows a reported impasse between the civil and military leadership over the appointment of DG of the ISI…reports Asian Lite News

Amid “differences” with his Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa on the issue of appointment of new Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director-General, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan received a summary carrying names of candidates for one of the most powerful positions in the country.

This follows a reported impasse between the civil and military leadership over the appointment of DG of the ISI, Dawn reported.

On Monday, the Pakistan military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations issued a notification regarding the appointment of Lt General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum as DG ISI despite the fact that his appointment was not issued by PM Khan’s office.

The law in Pakistan states that the appointment of the ISI Chief falls under the Prime Minister’s decision in consultation with the COAS.

At the moment, no notification has been issued by the Prime Minister’s Office for the appointment of the incoming ISI chief, Dawn reported. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Pakistan stocks end in red amid controversy on ISI

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First priority of new ISI chief: Crush Balochistan freedom movement

The incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa is on extension till 2022….reports Asian Lite News

The first and foremost priority of Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum, who has been appointed as the new Director General of Pakistan’s external spy wing Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is to crush the Balochistan freedom movement.

Following his appointment on Wednesday, Lt Gen Anjum replaced Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who was seen with the Taliban after the fall of Kabul on August 15.

Lt Gen Hameed, who was heading the spy agency since June 16, 2019, has now been appointed as Commander of the Peshawar Corps, which would make him eligible for the next Pakistan Army chief.

The incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa is on extension till 2022.

As the Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt Gen Hameed would also be working with the US and the Chinese as both are playing a major role in Afghanistan after its fall to the Taliban.

Workers-sit-outside-a-collapsed-coal-mine-in-Pir-Ismail-Marwar-area-near-Quetta-the-provincial-capital-of-Balochistan-Xinhua-Stringer-IANS.jpg



Lt Gen Anjum had previously worked in Balochistan as Inspector General of the Frontier Corps Balochistan for a while and has been infamous for stalling and disrupting freedom movement in the region through militia.

He had also served as the commander of Karachi Corps and it was in 2019 that he was promoted as Lieutenant General. He has also held command postings near the Line of Control.

The new ISI DG hails from the Pakistan Military Academy’s (PMA) 78th Long Course and the Punjab Regiment.

He also served as the commandant of the Command and Staff College in Quetta and was also the commander of a brigade in Kurram Agency, Hangu.

Lt Gen Anjum graduated from the Royal College of Defense Studies in the UK and also holds a degree from the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Honolulu.

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Controversies mar Hameed’s tenure as Pak spy chief

He had entered the office with the same perception about his personality, which dated back to his days at the ISI as head of internal security….reports Asian Lite News

Faiz Hameeds tenure as new Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief was marred by controversies both internal and external, which often kept the spy agency under media spotlight, Dawn news reported.

He had entered the office with the same perception about his personality, which dated back to his days at the ISI as head of internal security.

The timing of the change at the ISI, however, took many by surprise. It was generally believed that Gen Hameed would hold the position till April next year though he had completed his two-year tenure.

Some are looking at the change from the angle of the upcoming race for the next army chief in 2022. Gen Hameed, who would be one of the contenders, was yet to command a corps. Therefore, it is thought that he has been moved to a corps to meet that requirement for the four-star position, the report said.



Gen Hameed’s new place of posting, Peshawar, would, moreover, keep him relevant to the developments in Afghanistan. During his over two years’ tenure, he remained closely associated with Pakistani efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.

Gen Hameed’s visit to Kabul on September 4, weeks after the Taliban takeover, had led to renewed allegations about Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. People came to know about his trip after he was spotted having tea with Pakistani envoy at a Kabul hotel where many foreign journalists were staying.

The Express Tribune reported he remained head of the ISI for 27 months and oversaw the US exit from Afghanistan and was involved in behind-the-scenes talks aimed at seeking a rapprochement between Pakistan and India.

Previously he served as DG Counter-Intelligence within the ISI, a key position that looks after the internal security.

The reshuffle and appointment of DG ISI was due since Gen Faiz hasn’t yet commanded a corps, a prerequisite for being eligible for the slot of the army chief. He will be among the four senior-most generals in November 2022, when the incumbent army chief’s extended tenure ends.

ALSO READ: Taliban Blame ‘Toxic Pakistan’ For Global Image

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PANDORA PAPERS: Unaccountable Pak Generals

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (Source: ANI)

Pakistan generals including former ISI director general are using offshore accounts to enrich themselves … writes Sanjeev Sharma. Please click here to read the full report

The window into the personal finances of individual Pakistani generals is especially rare and provides a glimpse at how top military officers – known in Pakistan as “The Establishment” – use offshore system to quietly enrich themselves while maintaining, until now, the military’s image as a bulwark against civilian corruption.

 The revelations are part of the Pandora Papers, a new global investigation into the shadowy offshore financial system that allows multinational corporations, the rich, famous and powerful to avoid taxes and otherwise shield their wealth. The probe is based on more than 11.9 million confidential files from 14 offshore services firms leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with 150 news organisations around the world.

The Pandora Papers investigation exposes civilian government and military leaders who have been hiding vast amounts of wealth in a country plagued by widespread poverty and tax avoidance.

 One legacy of colonial rule is the military’s wealth. The military’s combined business holdings amount to Pakistan’s largest conglomerate, and it controls 12 per cent of the country’s land. Many of the landholdings are owned by current or former senior leaders.

The Pandora Papers reveal that in 2007, the wife of Gen Shafaat Ullah Shah, then one of Pakistan’s leading generals and a former aide to President Pervez Musharraf, acquired a $1.2 million apartment in London through a discreet offshore transaction.

 In one of several offshore holdings involving military leaders and their families, a luxury London apartment was transferred from the son of a famous Indian movie director to the wife of a three-star general. The general told ICIJ the property purchase was disclosed and proper; his wife didn’t reply.

 The property was transferred to Gen. Shah’s wife by an offshore company owned by Akbar Asif, a wealthy businessman who has opened restaurants in London and Dubai. Asif is the son of the Indian film director K. Asif. 

  Asif’s sister, Heena Kausar, is the widow of Iqbal Mirchi, a senior figure in a leading organised crime group, D-company. Mirchi was at the time under sanction as a drug trafficker by the US Before his death in 2013, Mirchi was one of India’s most wanted men.

 The younger Asif once met Musharraf at London’s Dorchester Hotel to ask for an exception to Pakistan’s 40-year ban on Indian films to allow the release there of one of his father’s most acclaimed movies. Musharraf granted the exception and later lifted the ban.

 The leaked documents show that Asif has owned a multimillion-dollar property portfolio through a web of offshore companies.

 One of those companies, called Talah Ltd. and registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), was used to transfer the London apartment to Shafaat Shah’s wife. Talah bought an apartment near the Canary Wharf financial district in 2006. The next year, Asif transferred ownership of the company to Fariha Shah.

Shah said that his wife has never met Asif and that he met him just once, while an aide to Musharaff, when Asif briefly lobbied the president for his father’s film “in the corridors of Dorchester Hotel when he had accompanied the hairstylist, who had come to cut Mrs Musharraf’s hair”.

  ICIJ revealed insights into the private wealth of top military officers and their families are exceedingly rare; journalists who have written about the military within Pakistan have been jailed, tortured and killed.

MQM stages protest in Washington DC against Pakistan atrocities on Mohajirs(ANI)

 The Pandora Papers also reveal that Raja Nadir Pervez, a retired army Lt Colonel and former government minister, owned International Finance & Equipment Ltd, a BVI-registered company. In the leaked files, the firm is involved in machinery and related businesses in India, Thailand, Russia and China. Records show that in 2003, Pervez transferred his shares in the company to a trust that controls several offshore companies.

 One of the trust’s beneficiaries is a British arms dealer. According to UK court documents, one of the trust’s other companies has helped broker arms sales from Belgian manufacturer FN Herstal SA to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, a state-owned Indian defence company.

 While he owned International Finance & Equipment, Pervez also held several high-level positions in Pakistan’s government. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1985 and later joined Imran Khan’s party. Pervez did not respond to reporters’ questions.

  Another influential former military leader who shows up in the leaked documents is Maj Gen Nusrat Naeem, the ISI’s onetime Director General of counterintelligence. He owned a BVI company, Afghan Oil & Gas Ltd, that was registered in 2009, shortly after his retirement.  He said that the company had been set up by a friend and that he didn’t use it for any financial transactions.

 Islamabad police later charged Naeem with fraud related to the attempted purchase of a steel mill for $1.7 million. The case was dropped.

  The Pandora Papers also bring to light the notable offshore holdings of close relatives of three senior military figures.

Umar and Ahad Khattak, sons of the former head of Pakistan’s air force, Abbas Khattak, in 2010 registered a BVI company to invest what documents call “family business earnings” in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate.

The Khattaks did not respond to reporters’ questions.

 In an example involving intergenerational wealth transfer, Shahnaz Sajjad Ahmad inherited a fortune from her father, a retired lieutenant general, through an offshore trust that owns two London apartments, purchased in 1997 and 2011 in Knightsbridge, a short walk from Harrods. She, in turn, set up a trust for her daughters in 2003 in Guernsey, a tax haven in the English Channel. Her father was a favourite of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, the country’s first military dictator (1958-1969). After her father retired from the army, he founded one of Pakistan’s biggest business conglomerates. Ayub Khan’s son later married into the family and sits on the boards of several of the group’s businesses.

Shahnaz did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.

Taken together, the findings offer a portrait of an unaccountable military elite with extensive personal and family offshore holdings.

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ISIS-K: India on alert as Pakistan adds new ‘weapon’

Since ISIS-K specialises in mass casualty attacks, Kashmir is likely to witness attacks against security forces or installations, government offices and tourists. These attacks could be in the form of suicide bombings, bomb blasts in public places or transport, all intended to attract global attention. While ISIS-K would claim responsibility for such attacks, JeM and LeT would remain quiet and Pakistan and Taliban would be the first ones to condemn such attacks …. A special report by Dr Sakariya Kareem

The Taliban victory in Afghanistan has given Pakistan a new set of hard-core trained and experienced jihadis, newer weapons, strategy and offensive tactics in urban warfare, especially in holding against a military force. These assets will form part of Pakistan’s attempts to stoke militancy in Kashmir in the coming weeks, before the winter sets in.

One of the key elements of this new strategy would be to send cadres from JeM and LeT under the banner of Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a convenient way for Pakistan to claim deniability and avoid sanctions.

Since ISIS-K specialises in mass casualty attacks, Kashmir is likely to witness attacks against security forces or installations, government offices and tourists. These attacks could be in the form of suicide bombings, bomb blasts in public places or transport, all intended to attract global attention. While ISIS-K would claim responsibility for such attacks, JeM and LeT would remain quiet and Pakistan and Taliban would be the first ones to condemn such attacks. 

In the past two years, thousands of LeT and JeM cadres were trained in heavy weapons, armed assaults, urban warfare and grenade attacks by Pak Army and sent to bolster the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. These cadres were trained in camps set up largely in Nangarhar, Kunar and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan. Nangarhar is the base of operations for the Haqqani Network as well as ISIS-K. In fact, most of the leadership of ISIS-K come either from the Haqqani Network or from LeT. The cadres are trained in JeM-run camps. JeM is ideologically close to the Taliban and has been a conduit for recruitment and training of Taliban cadres for several years now. 

Now that the Taliban has taken over Kabul, their new assignment would be Kashmir. While ISIS-K has tenuous moorings in Kashmir, both LeT and JeM, especially the former, have been able to consolidate their support and influence in Kashmir in the past few years. LeT in particular have been able to build a base of local support which was evidenced in the recent past by incidents of eulogising killed terrorists as martyrs and locals resorting to violence to give the terrorists a proper burial. 

The fact that LeT could foster foreign militants in areas like Hajin, Srinagar and Baramulla, before they were ousted or killed in military operations, showed the growing capability of the group to foster local support. These areas overlooked infantry positions and were not easy to be infiltrated. But the fact that the local people hid and supported terrorists, amidst heavy military presence, showed the strength of the support. 

The rising number of local recruits–38 in 2013 to 88 in 2016–amply projected the increasing hold of militant groups in Kashmir. A demographic profile of 393 local militants killed in encounters in J&K, from January 2017 to June 2019 showed that nearly 43 per cent of them were recruited by the LeT and JeM, and another 45 percent joined Hizb-ul Mujahideen. LeT and JeM cadres would be reassigned to join ISIS-K in Kashmir to carry out spectacular attacks in Kashmir, quite similar to the Kabul airport attack.

Besides direct attacks, the ISIS-K would be more emboldened to take on the security forces in isolated mountainous areas as well as crowded urban centres. The LeT, JeM and ISIS-K cadres have gained considerable experience in this regard while ousting the Afghan forces. Although the Indian security forces are battle-hardened and more experienced than the Afghan forces, the terrorist cadres from Pakistan, with new tactical weapons and strategies learnt in Afghanistan in the past few months, will present a stronger challenge than in the past. Groups like LeT and JeM would fall back on their local support network to plan and attack new targets, and escape, waving the flag of ISIS-K. 

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ISI Chief in Kabul to Push For Haqqani Network?

Not only is the dreaded ISI chief patron of the Haqqani Network, a proscribed terror organisation, the ISI boss equally wants to resolve the widening differences between Mullah Yaqub of Quetta Shura and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the Haqqani Network, reports Asian Lite News

In a significant geopolitical development and revealing its hand, ISI chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed arrived in Kabul with a high-level delegation from Islamabad on Saturday.

TOLO News reported that the Pakistan spymaster and his team were invited by the Taliban. The timing of this visit is very important for speculation has been rife that it is the ISI which has major influence over the Taliban.

Not only is the dreaded ISI chief patron of the Haqqani Network, a proscribed terror organisation, the ISI boss equally wants to resolve the widening differences between Mullah Yaqub of Quetta Shura and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the Haqqani Network.

The Pakistan spymaster is playing mediator at a time when vital hectic negotiations are underway between the Taliban top deck leadership and the Haqqani Network over the formation of government in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the US has, as per leaked documents, urged Pakistan to fight the terror groups as the crisis in Afghanistan spirals.

As per a set of leaked documents and diplomatic cables to a prominent US media outlet, President Joe Biden’s administration is quietly pressing Islamabad to cooperate on combating dreaded terrorist groups such as the ISIS-K and Al Qaeda following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The Dawn newspaper on Saturday carried a report quoting a news published on Friday by the Politico on a slew of diplomatic messages exchanged between Washington and Islamabad recently, after the Taliban insurgents seized power in Afghanistan.

Late Taliban founder Mullah Omar’s son Mohammad Yaqoob and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who served as the deputy foreign minister when the insurgents last controlled power between 1996 and 2001 in Afghanistan, will reportedly have prominent roles in the new government.

‘To push for Haqqanis’

Former woman Afghan MP, Mariam Solaimankhil said on Saturday that Pakistan intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed had arrived in Kabul to make sure that Abdul Ghani Baradar does not lead the new Afghanistan government.

“From what I am hearing DG of ISI has come into Kabul to make sure Baradar doesn’t lead this government and Haqqani does,” tweeted Mariam Solaimankhil, Member of Afghanistan’s Parliament representing the Kuchis.

She also informed that there were a lot of disagreements amongst the Taliban factions and the Talian co-founder Mullah Baradar.

“There are a lot of disagreements amongst the Taliban factions and Baradar has called all his men off of attacking Panjshir. #SanctionPakistan #FreeAfghanistan” tweeted Solaimankhil.

Earlier, there were reports that Mullah Baradar would lead the upcoming government in Afghanistan where the group seized control last control following months of offensives.

Pakistan journalist Hamza Azhar Salam said that Hameed is visiting Afghanistan at the invitation of the Taliban to discuss the future of the two countries.

“DG ISI, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has arrived in #Kabul leading a delegation of Pakistani officials on the invitation of the Taliban to discuss the future of #Pakistan and #Afghanistan ties under the new Taliban government,” he tweeted.

(Image Source ANI)

Taliban meet Pak officials in Doha

A senior Taliban delegation led by Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai met with the Pakistani Embassy officials in Qatar on Friday where the two delegations discussed issues concerning the current developments in Afghanistan.

Taking to Twitter, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said the two sides held talks over humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and issues related to facilitating people’s movement at Torkhan and Spinboldak.

“Sher M. Abbas Stanikzai, Deputy Director of the Political Office and his delegation met Pakistan Ambassador to Qatar and his delegation. Both sides discussed the current Afghan situation, humanitarian assistance, bilateral relations based on mutual interest and respect, reconstruction of Afghanistan and issues related to facilitating people’s movement at Torkhan and Spinboldak,” Shaheen tweeted.

This meet comes following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and subsequent refugees crises caused due to the weeks-long intense violence. Earlier this week, Pakistan closed its Chaman border with Afghanistan citing security concerns.

“We want peace and stability in Afghanistan. We have put up a fence on the border,” the Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said, as quoted by The Express Tribune.

Rashid added that “due to some concerns” the border at Chaman was being closed temporarily. “However, we will not allow chaos to spread. There are no Americans left in Pakistan. Those who came have left”, he said.

Pedestrian traffic through Pakistan’s south-western Chaman border crossing has swiftly increased after the Taliban’s hostile takeover of Afghanistan over the last few weeks.

The situation on the Afghan-Pakistani border has remained tense due to the influx of refugees from Afghanistan. Multiple reports said that the Pakistani forces had opened fire at the Afghan refugees at the Torkham border crossing. (IANS/ANI)

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Pak ISI chief in Kabul as Taliban set to announce govt

Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence Faiz Hameed.

Pakistan and its notorious intelligence agency, ISI have been accused of supporting the Taliban in taking over Afghanistan, reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has arrived in Kabul leading a delegation of Pakistani officials as heavy fighting is underway in Panjshir valley and the Taliban is set to announce the formation of a new government.

Pakistan journalist Hamza Azhar Salam said that Hameed is visiting Afghanistan at the invitation of the Taliban to discuss the future of the two countries.

“DG ISI, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has arrived in #Kabul leading a delegation of Pakistani officials on the invitation of the Taliban to discuss the future of #Pakistan and #Afghanistan ties under the new Taliban government,” he tweeted.

ISI
Ambassador Syed Ahsan Raza Shah welcomed 7 member high level TPC delegation headed by Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanakzai at Embassy of Pakistan, Doha. (Photo Pakistan Embassy Qatar)

Pakistan and its notorious intelligence agency have been accused of supporting the Taliban in taking over Afghanistan.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla on Friday said that Pakistan has “supported and nurtured” the Taliban that replaced the elected government.

Speaking to a group of reporters in Washington, Shringla said, “Pakistan is a neighbour of Afghanistan, they have supported and nurtured the Taliban. There are various elements that are supported by Pakistan — so its role has to be seen in that context.”

Experts believe that Pakistan has been a key player in removing the elected Afghan government from power and establishing Taliban as a decisive power in Afghanistan.

(Image source ANI)

Recently, a UN Monitoring report has said that a significant part of the leadership of Al-Qaida resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region.

Almost all foreign members of ISIL-K and al-Qaida have entered Afghanistan via Pakistan and the leaders of these outfits along with those of the Taliban have been living in Pakistan, the UN report said. (ANI)

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Al-Qaeda statement on Kashmir handiwork of ISI: Intel agencies

Security officials have been analyzing the Al Qaeda statement which was quite worrisome not only for India but also in many parts of central Asia..reports Asian Lite News

The intelligence agencies apprehend that Al Qaeda’s recent statement on global jihad that included Kashmir, was made on the behest of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

A day after the last contingent of the US army left Afghanistan in the intervening night of August 30-31, the Al Qaeda issued a statement in which it called for “a global jihad to liberate Islamic lands” including Kashmir.

Congratulating the Taliban for taking full control of the country after the US exit, the Al-Qaeda said, “Liberate the Levant, Somalia, Yemen, Kashmir and the rest of the Islamic lands from the clutches of the enemies of Islam. O’ Allah! Grant freedom to Muslim prisoners across the world.”

The inclusion of Kashmir was quite alarming as it was never on the agenda of the Taliban in the past, the sources said, adding that this will boost the morale of terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen based in Pakistan.

Officials in the security agencies have been analyzing the Al Qaeda statement which was quite worrisome not only for India but also in many parts of central Asia and Pakistan, the sources said.

That the statement did not mention Chechnya in Russia and China’s Xinjiang among targets of “liberation” through jihad was quite significant and that also indicated Pakistan’s hand behind the statement, they added.

Despite the fact that Indian security forces are on high alert on the border with Pakistan and also fully prepared to deal with any situation in Jammu and Kashmir even if the ultras get Taliban captured US weapons, this has created a worrisome situation, a senior official in the security forces said.

Al-Qaeda militant(WIKIPEDIA)

The government has also taken this matter seriously and the officials of the Union Home Ministry have discussed the situation threadbare with all stakeholders.

“There has been indication that Pakistan based terror outfits like Lashkar-e Taiba, and Jaishe-e Mohammad have stepped up their efforts to push their ultras into Jammu and Kashmir soon after the Taliban took over Afghanistan”, the official added.

According to him, the launch pads in Pakistan have been humming with activity near the border indicating an increase in planning for infiltration. These launch pads were abandoned after a ceasefire was announced in February this year and as per the latest input, over 300 terrorists have again occupied these camps across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

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SEASON 2: Good Terrorists Vs Bad Terrorists. Sponsored by ISI. LOCATION- Afghanistan

Pakistan’s ISI is coordinating the joint efforts of the Taliban, ISKP, and LeT to provide support to the Taliban through the game of good and bad boys, with LeT being the major player, the Armenian think tank said…reports Asian Lite News

The Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has claimed responsibility for the horrific Kabul attack, is a “clever creation” of notorious Pakistan intelligence agency–ISI–to deny responsibility for the recent spiralling crisis in Afghanistan, said an Armenian think tank.

In a piece in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, Armenian Network State said that the experts believe that Pakistan created ISKP by planting Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives in leadership positions in the outfit.

“ISKP is a clever ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence, of Pakistan] creation to help in ensuring deniability to the Pakistani intelligence agency as Pakistan was being blamed for whatever was being done by the Taliban,” the think tank said.

ISI
Photo taken with mobile phone shows smoke rises near the blast site at an airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021. (Str/Xinhua/IANS)

“The Pakistani project in Afghanistan has nearly succeeded with one Pakistani proxy Taliban becoming a ‘good boy’ and another Pakistan proxy ISKP becoming a ‘bad boy’. The latest attack on Kabul airport is indicative of the fact that ISI’s operation has been launched in full swing,” it added.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber and multiple ISIS-K gunmen killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians in the attack at the Kabul airport.

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Soon after the attack, ISKP came forward to claim the responsibility. A commander of the ISKP named Amaq issued a statement on its Telegram channel wherein he claimed that a suicide bomber, Abdul Rahman al-Logari, managed to reach near a group of US soldiers, translators, and collaborators and detonated his explosives.

File photo shows foreign forces entering the Kabul airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Xinhua/IANS)

Pakistan’s ISI is coordinating the joint efforts of the Taliban, ISKP, and LeT to provide support to the Taliban through the game of good and bad boys, with LeT being the major player, the think tank said citing experts.

The think tank noted that ‘Emir’ or the chief of ISKP, Mawlawi Abdullah is a Pakistani citizen and had confessed about his connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba when the Afghan NDS arrested him for attacking a Gurdwara in Kabul and butchering 27 members from the Sikh minority community.

After being detained, Aslam Farooqui was replaced by Maulvi Mohammed as the new chief of the outfit. Similar to Farooqui, Maulvi Mohammad was also trained by the ISI and was associated with the LeT.

According to a report of Long War Journal, an independent watchdog on Afghanistan, “a number of Pakistani groups are known to operate inside Afghanistan and fight alongside the Taliban, and top leaders of Pakistani terror groups have been killed inside Afghanistan. Additionally, a number of Pakistanis are known to fight in the ranks of the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province (ISKP).”

Following the attacks, President Joe Biden, who is facing an intense backlash in the US over Kabul airport attack, vowed to retaliate and “not forgive” the perpetrators. It would be interesting to see whether he holds the source of the attack, the ISI, accountable or just gives it the cold shoulder. (inputs from ANI)

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