Bharat Rakshak

Asked about reports of Pakistan having 'siphoned-off' data from the Indian Army's Cheetah helicopter that strayed into its airspace near Skardu recently, the minister said that the chopper contained no vital information that may compromise the nation's security save for inputs that are required to fly the aircraft. On Pakistan's gesture in allowing the Cheetah and its occupants to fly back to India safely, Raju said: "Pakistan has to do much more to establish itself as a friendly neighbour."

Suppiah wrote:It is official...judge gets sent to KSA for safe-custody or a more direct route to 72...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 489168.cms

Malook [prosecutor] further said he too had been receiving threats. "The government has deployed only two policemen for my security, which by all means is not adequate," he said.

why not? is 1 not enough to pump bullets into you and become ghazi superhero?

This then means that the US wants Pakistan to (a) facilitate the talks with the Taliban, including the Haqqani network and (b) ensure that the Taliban, especially the Haqqanis, do not mount the kind of audacious attacks they have on Isaf troops in the past three months. The not-so-hidden threat here is that if the Taliban-Haqqani Network do not desist from operations against US-Nato troops, Pakistan must ‘act’ to prevent that and if it can’t, Islamabad will be held accountable, if not overtly responsible.

Chief Justice Azad Jammu Kashmir High Court Ghulam Mustafa Mughal was injured in a life attempt here on Tuesday. According to reports, an unknown assailant opened fire on the CJ when he was walking near his residence. The sources said that he received a bullet in abdomen. He was shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment. Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Muzaffarabad Riaz Abbasi told a private TV channel that the CJ was walking outside his residence when he was targeted by a known assailant. “There was only one security guard with him, sitting inside the car” , he added. “The Chief Justice condition is stable and he is being operated by doctors at the CMH”, the SSP said.

abhijitm wrote:[url=xxxhttp://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/25-Oct-2011/CJ-AJK-High-Court-injured-in-murder-attack]CJ AJK HC injured in murder attack[/url]

what did he do?

Chief Justice Azad Jammu Kashmir High Court Ghulam Mustafa Mughal was injured in a life attempt here on Tuesday. According to reports, an unknown assailant opened fire on the CJ when he was walking near his residence. The sources said that he received a bullet in abdomen. He was shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment. Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Muzaffarabad Riaz Abbasi told a private TV channel that the CJ was walking outside his residence when he was targeted by a known assailant. “There was only one security guard with him, sitting inside the car” , he added. “The Chief Justice condition is stable and he is being operated by doctors at the CMH”, the SSP said.

Chief Justice Azad Jammu Kashmir High Court Ghulam Mustafa Mughal was injured in a life attempt here on Tuesday. According to reports, an unknown assailant opened fire on the CJ when he was walking near his residence. The sources said that he received a bullet in abdomen. He was shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for treatment. Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Muzaffarabad Riaz Abbasi told a private TV channel that the CJ was walking outside his residence when he was targeted by a known assailant. “There was only one security guard with him, sitting inside the car” , he added. “The Chief Justice condition is stable and he is being operated by doctors at the CMH”, the SSP said.

But will letting the Chinese use Pakistani soil for acting against terrorists not provide US even greater reason to ask of Pakistan for an explanation on why the US shouldn’t use Pakistani territory, particularly North Waziristan, for acting against terrorists that are attacking NATO forces in Afghanistan? On the other hand, saying “no” to the Chinese can mean a serious rift in Pak-China friendship.

If America's countless meetings with Pakistan's Army Chief and its ISI Chief have only produced frustration, engaging the real decision makers in Pakistan by India, as some advocate, will not produce any better result. We should be more clear-sighted about the potential of our dialogue with Pakistan.

It is because we are not that we err not only in not discovering ways to capitalise on the pressure being put on Pakistan to end its terrorist affiliations, we actually release pressure on it by ill thought out and ill timed positioning. We cannot adopt a neutral position on US efforts to cajole and coerce Pakistan to cease using terrorism as an instrument of state policy - our own demand since years.

While we need not inject ourselves directly into the current US-Pakistan spat rooted in bilateral differences, how can we equate the US and Pakistan as "friendly powers", advocate a resolution of all outstanding issues between them, as if terrorism is not an "outstanding" issue for us too, express concern that USPakistan tensions may affect our development and, to top it all, advocate a dialogue with Pakistan as that country "has a positive role to play in finding a solution to Afghanistan"?

If this correctly enunciates our position, it would epitomise the loss of direction of our policy towards Pakistan.

Recently, former CIA officer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, Bruce Riedel recommended that the United States should now apply a policy of “containment” to Pakistan, whereby the U.S. would reduce aid, cut military assistance “deeply” and resort to a “more hostile relationship” in order to restrain the Pakistani Army’s ambitions.

Riedel’s use of the premier Cold War term is a sign that some in the administration are shifting away from supporting Pakistan in its game with arch-rival India. But is America’s Secretary of State so under pressure from the Pakistan lobby in Washington that she dare not sway from a U.S. Cold War alliance whose questionable benefits have long since come and gone? The idea that such an antiquated Cold War practice as containment would even be an option when Pakistan is already waging a de facto Hot War on American and Afghan forces, should be taken as another sign of how far out of touch the debate in Washington is.
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A frustrated Obama administration wants to get reelected in 2012 but is committed to staying in Afghanistan long after 2014. All that is needed now to justify a prolonged occupation of the Hindu Kush is an incident that will finally put the dysfunctional U.S./Pakistan relationship to the ultimate test.

Rana wrote:Love Fest in the Hindu Kush
http://invisiblehistory.com/

Recently, former CIA officer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, Bruce Riedel recommended that the United States should now apply a policy of “containment” to Pakistan, whereby the U.S. would reduce aid, cut military assistance “deeply” and resort to a “more hostile relationship” in order to restrain the Pakistani Army’s ambitions.

Riedel’s use of the premier Cold War term is a sign that some in the administration are shifting away from supporting Pakistan in its game with arch-rival India. But is America’s Secretary of State so under pressure from the Pakistan lobby in Washington that she dare not sway from a U.S. Cold War alliance whose questionable benefits have long since come and gone? The idea that such an antiquated Cold War practice as containment would even be an option when Pakistan is already waging a de facto Hot War on American and Afghan forces, should be taken as another sign of how far out of touch the debate in Washington is.
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A frustrated Obama administration wants to get reelected in 2012 but is committed to staying in Afghanistan long after 2014. All that is needed now to justify a prolonged occupation of the Hindu Kush is an incident that will finally put the dysfunctional U.S./Pakistan relationship to the ultimate test.

Pakistan’s problems run deep and wide. According to Harvard’s Dr. Charles Cogan, who served as chief of the CIA’s Near East-South Asia division in the directorate of operations from 1979 until 1984, Pakistan isn’t just a bad marriage for the U.S., it’s a country that should never have happened. Pakistan’s military fears a repeat on its western frontier of its 1971 war in East Pakistan (Bengal) which grew into a war with India and established the breakaway state of Bangladesh. It uses Pashtun Taliban to suppress Pashtun and Baluch independence movements. Its support for Islamism undermines Pakistan’s fragile secular state and threatens to bring it down, all the while provoking another and perhaps final war with India that would undoubtedly go nuclear.


Pakistan’s military is driven to win the endgame for control of the gateway to Central Asia, rule Afghanistan and fulfill its destiny as the Islamic Land of the Pure. From a position of pure self-interest, it would be to America’s benefit to reassess the entire policy and the assumptions under which the United States operates in Central Asia, support a strong Afghanistan along with the independence movements of Baluchistan, Pashtunistan, Sindh and Kashmir and find a workable solution that neutralizes the Pakistani military’s control of state policy.

Rana wrote:Love Fest in the Hindu Kush
http://invisiblehistory.com/

Focuses on the AfPak strategy and the importance of the Durand Line, the border separating Pakistan from Afghanistan but referred to by the military and intelligence community as Zero line. The U.S. fought on the side of extremist-political Islam from Pakistan during the 1980s and against it from Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. It is therefore appropriate to think of the Durand/Zero line as the place where America’s intentions face themselves; the alpha and omega of nearly 60 years of American policy in Eurasia. The Durand line is visible on a map. Zero line is not.
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A funny thing happened to the United States when the Obama administration decided to cross Zero line again and bring the Afghan war into Pakistan. Instead of resolution, after years into the administration’s AfPak strategy, it would seem the gap between reality and the Washington beltway has only widened. If the Obama administration had set out to correct the mistakes of the past, it would now appear that Washington’s effort to defeat the Taliban has instead turned full circle into a plan to openly embrace them

Former Pakistani PM Sharif Evaluated Current Issues and Pakistan's Foreign Relations

Tuesday, 25 October 2011
By Gozde Citler, JTW

Pakistan-U.S. Relations

Regarding U.S.-Pakistan relations, Mr. Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan has always had good relations with the U.S., and that he believes in a strong relationship with the U.S. He expresses the need for a meeting where everybody expresses themselves and communicates with each other in a very candid fashion. Whatever the misperceptions and misgivings, they should be removed, he said. Mr. Sharif pointed out that an all-parties conference was held in Pakistan where it was agreed that they should not rule out the option of holding talks with people who will be willing to listen.

Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations

With regard to Afghanistan, Mr. Sharif stressed his country’s belief in a sovereign and terror-free Afghanistan, whose current situation affects Pakistan badly as well. Mr. Sharif said that they believe in a terror-free world, and they are against all the situations that affect not only Pakistan or Afghanistan but the world in general. If something is emanating from that part of the world, it has to be dealt with, he said. He pointed out that there should be another option to sort out this issue rather than with guns and bullets. Settling an issue with guns should not be the only option, Mr. Sharif said, and that the other possible ways should also be exercised. Pakistan, together with the international community, should seek and agree on exercising other options and possibilities.

Arab World

On a question about the developments in the Arab world, Mr. Sharif said democracy is the only answer to the countries that have such problems. He stated that human rights and values need to be respected at the same time. Mr. Sharif also said that military operations are not the only way and more democratic norms and principles need to be adopted.

Pakistan-China Relations

On Pakistan-China relations, Mr. Sharif said that Pakistan has excellent relations with China and has a very strong friendship. He pointed out that there is no grudge whatsoever against Chinese-Indian relations and that Pakistan is keen to establish its own ties, especially in the economic field, with China. He also said that the possibilities of having trade relations among China, India, and Pakistan should be considered, which of course will be for the benefit of the three countries and also for the region. Mr. Sharif concluded by stating the fact that we are now living in the 21st century and the times and situations are changing, so we should therefore act accordingly.

Big storms sometimes begin deceptively small and then in no time become monsters, ruthlessly devouring the unprepared, the unsuspecting. Are Mansoor Ijaz’s revelations in the Financial Times something similar? He claims to have delivered an SOS message from President Zardari to President Obama at the behest of a top diplomat and says that he was specifically asked to approach Admiral Mike Mullen because Mullen could influence both Obama and Gen Kayani. “The memo was delivered to Admiral Mullen at 14.00 hrs on May 10”, wrote Mansoor, saying the very next day in Washington, Mullen had a meeting with “Pakistani national security officials” who had no clue at the time that their meeting had been spawned by a secret presidential memo. Rawalpindi too learnt of the memo months later when Mansoor went cautiously public in the FT.

And a lot has happened since my column last week. When asked bluntly about the memo, Secretary Clinton manoeuvred evasively by neither denying nor confirming the memo. And we all know what that really means in case of a critical question at such a diplomatic level.

With the basics settled, the focus would shift to the memo’s contents. If the details trickling out are to be believed, we apparently do not have a gun but a smoking bazooka on our hands. The contents are so toxic that they could well float into the realm of treason. The memo supposedly has it all, including the promised change of security establishment (read: sacking of Kayani & Co). Even speculations about allowing nuclear security retooling, or American boots on the ground, are tantamount to political blasphemy, so imagine the devastating consequences when such offers are found written in black and white. “It’s an impossibly desperate dream menu rather than a memo,” says someone credible in Islamabad. Everything appears to be real, everything is now on the record. The problem, and the beauty of today’s digital existence, is that every little scrap of data gets preserved with the simple click of a key, instantly transforming seemingly inconsequential exchanges into key-evidence. One click and BlackBerries can turn into poison berries.

Former ISI head Lieutenant General (r) Hamid Gul held that America would not dare to attack Pakistan directly, instead, he added, it would prefer to divide the people and deprive the country of atomic capabilities through hatching conspiracies. “After facing defeat in Afghanistan, the US now wants safe withdrawal from the neighbouring Muslim country,” said the defence expert. He predicted that Obama would present himself as a man of peace in the next US election. So, according to Mr Gul, “They want safe withdrawal from Afghanistan by shouldering the responsibility of defeat on Pakistan.”

Establishment of India’s hegemony in the region, imposition of a western democracy on Afghanistan and setting up of a mixed Talban and pro American government in Afghanistan were the ill-plans of Washington, said Hamid Gul.

“People of Pakistan have to play a vital role in this situation and they should give a clear message of unity to their enemies,” he stressed. Mr Gul said the solidarity among the countrymen was the need of the hour.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan was of the view that with rulers in power, the defence of Pakistan would remain in danger. The government has lost its credibility to rule over 180 million people, Munawar said. He urged the people to be ready for Jihad against America as, according to him, the American and Pakistani objectives in the region were totally different from each other.

The revelation made by your esteemed newspaper that Pakistani officials and IMF teams will be sitting together from November 9 to ascertain the size of a bailout package for Pakistan is a chilling piece of information.

A financier grants bail to a country with well-defined conditions and castigates it for any inaction with a heavy price tag. We don’t need bail-out packages; it is the lavish expenditure of our rulers that has to be slashed.

Javed Iqbal

I was surprised to read Dr Niaz Murtaza’s comment (Consumerism, Oct 24) who suggested adopting the export-led growth model. How can an economic scholar advise such a model knowing fully well that it has worked only for a few developing countries and failed badly in the rest? Many studies have been conducted on the validity of this model and, in most of the cases, empirical evidence regarding the relationship between exports and growth is not robust. Although exports have a positive effect on the overall economic growth and could be considered the ‘engine of growth’, their impact, in most cases, is quantitatively small. The model has worked only for a limited number of developing countries, and that too to a limited extent. For example, the proponents of this model believe that Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have greater economic growth due to this model.

But, if export-led growth was the true explanation for the high GDP growth accompanied by the high export growth of these countries, we should have been able to observe real exchange rate appreciation in all such cases, due to the influx of foreign exchange as a result of booming exports. The evidence shows, however, that real exchange rate appreciation did not occur in those countries; in fact it actually depreciated. This model might not work particularly in our case as exports depend on many things including capital, labour (skilled and unskilled) and technology. All these require a particular environment and energy to operate, which are presently absent in our country. Emphasising exports at this stage is like telling somebody to enjoy his meal while he has nothing to cook. Creation of a suitable environment for domestic and foreign investments is the key to economic growth for us.

Indian security has been breached in the sensitive Siachen Glacier-Aksai Chin-Ladakh-Kargil sector as Pakistan Army downloaded the GPS coordinates of all helipads from the army helicopter that strayed across the Line of Control (LoC) into Skardu region on Sunday morning.
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Top government sources said the incident was being probed at a high level as the GPS data of the helicopter was found wiped out along with nicknames and code signs of all the helipads in the 14 Corps area

As Pakistan's liberal and secular sections rejoiced over the conviction of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's assassin, the irony was not lost on them. This was an open-and-shut case. Malik Mumtaz Husain Qadri had not only pumped bullets into Taseer in full view of other policemen but also confessed to his act with pride.

But, as was repeatedly pointed out by those shell-shocked by Qadri's act and the support he drew from “people like us,” so low is the expectation of the average Pakistani from various institutions of the state that a judge doing his duty became a cause célèbre.

Much like after Taseer's assassination in January, it was the behaviour of lawyers that hogged the headlines after Qadri was awarded the death sentence on October 1. The only difference was that this time no one was taken by surprise; definitely not with vivid recollections of lawyers showering petals on Qadri when he was produced before court for the first time.

Protests against the verdict began almost as soon as it was given and before the day was through, awards were announced from various quarters for the scalp of Pervez Ali Shah, judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court. Lawyers again took centre stage with the District Bar Association (DBA), Rawalpindi, calling for a strike and an ‘emergency' session on October 3.

Has relocated?

An official resolution called for boycott of the judge. According to Pindi-based lawyer Muhammad Haider Imtiaz, the lawyers also decided to surround and prevent the judge from attending the court the following day, lock his courtroom, and ask the authorities to transfer him to another city immediately. The following day, lawyers vandalised his office and eventually the judge was transferred. Now there are reports that he has relocated to Saudi Arabia in view of threats to his life.

Evidently disturbed by what is happening within his fraternity, Mr. Imtiaz sought to point out in his article in The Express Tribune that the association's decisions did not have broad support as was evident from the lukewarm response to the strike call and thin attendance at the ‘emergency' session. But, in the silence of the majority of the 2,056 registered voting members of the DBA, the 60-70 lawyers who attended had their way.

What is feared most is that this verdict will haunt Justice Shah wherever he goes and he, too, may have to flee the country like the cleric who led Taseer's funeral prayers after the religious right wing managed to scare the government-paid Imam of Governor House from discharging his duties. After all, a judge of the Lahore High Court, Arif Iqbal Bhatti, was murdered for acquitting two boys sentenced to death for blasphemy by a lower court. And, that was in 1997 when Pakistani society was not as radicalised as it is today.

If the behaviour of the lawyers — celebrated not so long ago for their movement against the Musharraf regime for restoration of the higher judiciary — has caused a lot of consternation, so has the silence of the Supreme Court over the turn of events.

“The Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan jealously guards its ‘judicial independence' against any potential infringement by the federal government. One would think that calling for the blood of a judge and physical attacks on a courtroom may also be considered as very clear, direct and tangibly violent infringement of ‘judicial independence'. If there is a better case for taking suo motu cognisance of this fiasco, I have yet to come across it. Admittedly, taking suo motu cognisance of this fiasco will not be very popular with a certain, fairly large segment of the society and will also adversely affect the street credibility of the Court, but in theory the courts are there to do the ‘right' thing, we already have Parliament for capitulating and doing the ‘popular' thing,” wrote Lahore-based lawyer Saroop Ijaz in his regular column.

All this, coupled with the former Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif volunteering to represent Qadri, has led to questions whether this aggressive streak within the legal fraternity has anything to do with the lawyers' movement; particularly as recent months have seen lawyers attacking policemen, courts and judges.

To Mr. Ijaz's mind, the lawyers' movement went wrong in accepting assistance from anyone who offered it and the religious right was the first to seize the opportunity. “Faustian bargains once made cannot be undone.'

Asad Jamal, another Lahore-based lawyer, says the lawyers' movement has created a judiciary independent of the executive but dependent on lawyers. “Lawyers who play group politics understand this. Judges of even high courts are afraid of annoying lawyers especially in cases involving blasphemy. Though the movement was largely free of physical violence, the lawyers remained in threatening mode all through.”

Delving further into history, Mr. Jamal maintains that lawyers have always been at the forefront of the campaign for the death sentence in blasphemy cases. The movement to introduce the death penalty for blasphemy was started by an advocate from Lahore. Lawyers collaborated with martial ruler Zia-ul Haq for Islamisation of laws and the first ever Shariat petition filed before the Federal Shariat Court in 1984 for declaring death as punishment for blasphemy contained 79 petitioners of whom 68 were Lahore-based advocates.

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that despite having nuclear weapons, the present government has made Pakistan into “a beggar state”, Express 24/7 reported on Wednesday.

He made this statement while addressing traders at the Mall Road in Lahore.

Middle-ranking Taliban commanders have boasted that they have received "practical guidance" and training in bomb-making by officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

One commander, Mullah Azizullah, told a BBC documentary: "They are all the ISI's men. They are the ones who run the training.

"First they train us about bombs, then they give us practical guidance.

Their generals are everywhere. They are present during the training."

In an interview at a safe-house in Kabul in June, he added: "The Taliban movement was created with the help of the ISI. It is like when a tree grows – one has to plant it and water it."

A middle-ranking commander called Mullah Qaseem told the makers of Secret Pakistan, to be broadcast on BBC Two this evening [Wed]: "For a fighter there are two important things – supplies and a place to hide.

"Pakistan plays a significant role. First they support us by providing a place to hide which is really important. Secondly and they provide us with weapons."

Lt Col Tony Shaffer, who served with US Defence Intelligence between 1995 and 2006, said the ISI tipped of Ayman al-Zawahiri, now the leader of al-Qaeda, during a bloody battle with Pakistani troops in Wana in 2004, allowing him to escape.

"We found out ... that 24 hours before going in the HVT (high value target) in this case Dr Zawahiri was given fair warning, 'You're about to be attacked, you'd better skedaddle'," he said.

"And the reason being is because the ISI was able to give tip off information to the al-Qaeda and Taliban folks in the safe haven and allow them to escape ahead of the attack." Col Richard Kemp, who worked at the Cabinet Office as head of intelligence on international terrorism between 2001 and 2006, said the ISI bore some responsibility for not preventing the July 7 attacks.

"The ISI of course must take responsibility for the fact that some of these camps were still up and running including perhaps the camp that, that was responsible for training the 7/7 attackers," he said.

DIR LOWER - Four people were killed when a roadside planted remote-controlled device hit their vehicle at Shapano Kasai village, Samar Bagh, near Pak-Afgan border on Tuesday, police said.
The deceased included Aziz-ur-Rahman, his son Muhammad Tawwab, son-in-law Islam Badshah and neighbour Aminul Haq. Sources said that Aziz-ur-Rahman was being taken to a hospital in Swat for eye operation in his private cab which was hit by the remote-controlled bomb fitted in a pressure cooker. The vehicle completely destroyed in the blast.

Rana wrote:Kanwal Sibal: Our Pakistan policy has lost focus
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/haqq ... 57434.html

While we need not inject ourselves directly into the current US-Pakistan spat rooted in bilateral differences, how can we equate the US and Pakistan as "friendly powers", advocate a resolution of all outstanding issues between them, as if terrorism is not an "outstanding" issue for us too, express concern that USPakistan tensions may affect our development and, to top it all, advocate a dialogue with Pakistan as that country "has a positive role to play in finding a solution to Afghanistan"?

If this correctly enunciates our position, it would epitomise the loss of direction of our policy towards Pakistan.

The United States and Pakistan agree on a framework for holding direct talks with the militants and are now working to operationalise the plan, says the US State Department.

Pakistan has been accused of playing a double game, acting as America's ally in public while secretly training and arming its enemy in Afghanistan according to US intelligence.

In a prison cell on the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan Intelligence Service is holding a young man who alleges he was recruited earlier this year by Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency, the ISI.

He says he was trained to be a suicide bomber in the Taliban's intensifying military campaign against the Western coalition forces - and preparations for his mission were overseen by an ISI officer in a camp in Pakistan.

After 15 days training, he was sent into Afghanistan.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
In Afghanistan we saw an insurgency that was not only getting passive support from the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, but getting active support”
End Quote
Bruce Riedel

Adviser to President Obama in 2009
"There were three of us. We were put into a black vehicle with black windows. The police did not stop the car because it was obviously ISI. No-one dares stop their cars. They told me... you will receive your explosive waistcoat, and then go and explode it."

Taliban bases in Pakistan

The man recruited to be a suicide bomber changed his mind at the last minute and was later captured by the Afghan intelligence service.

But his story is consistent with a mass of intelligence which has convinced the Americans that, as they suspected, for the last decade Pakistan has been secretly arming and supporting the Taliban in its attempt to regain control of Afghanistan.

These suspicions started as early as 2002, when the Taliban began launching attacks across the border from their bases in Pakistan, but they became more widely held after 2006 when the Taliban's assault increased in its ferocity, not least against the ill-prepared British forces in Helmand province.

The final turning point in American eyes was the attack on Mumbai when 10 gunmen rampaged through the Indian city, killing 170 people - two weeks after Barack Obama's US presidential election victory in November 2008.

Despite Pakistan claiming it played no part in the attack, the CIA later received intelligence that it said showed the ISI were directly involved in training the Mumbai gunmen.

President Obama ordered a review of all intelligence on the region by a veteran CIA officer, Bruce Riedel.

AdvertisementTaliban commander Najib says he was trained by Pakistan military intelligence
"Our own intelligence was unequivocal," says Riedel. "In Afghanistan we saw an insurgency that was not only getting passive support from the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, but getting active support."

Training and supplies

Pakistan has repeatedly denied the claims. But the BBC documentary series Secret Pakistan has spoken to a number of middle-ranking - and still active - Taliban commanders who provide detailed evidence of how the Pakistan ISI has rebuilt, trained and supported the Taliban throughout its war on the US in Afghanistan.

"For a fighter there are two important things - supplies and a place to hide," said one Taliban commander, who fights under the name Mullah Qaseem. "Pakistan plays a significant role. First they support us by providing a place to hide which is really important. Secondly, they provide us with weapons."

Another commander, Najib, says: "Because Obama put more troops into Afghanistan and increased operations here, so Pakistan's support for us increased as well."

He says his militia received a supply truck with "500 landmines with remote controls, 20 rocket-propelled grenade launchers with 2000 to 3000 grenades... AK-47s, machine-guns and rockets".

Pakistani military

Evidence of Pakistan's support for the Taliban is also plain to see at the border where insurgents are allowed to cross at will, or even helped to evade US patrols.

And the recent drone attacks in Pakistan have become increasingly effective as intelligence has been withheld from the Pakistanis, claims Mr Riedel.

"At the beginning of the drone operations, we gave Pakistan an advance tip-off of where we were going, and every single time the target wasn't there anymore. You didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to put the dots together."

Osama Bin Laden's capture and killing followed this same model - the Americans acting on their own, to the humiliation of Pakistan. Trust between the two supposed allies has never been lower.

Continue reading the main story
SECRET PAKISTAN

Secret Pakistan is on BBC Two on Wed 26 Oct and Wed 2 Nov at 21:00 (UK time)
Watch afterwards via iPlayer (UK only)
Bin Laden was the reason America had attacked Afghanistan and overthrown the Taliban who had always refused to hand him over. His death has removed a major obstacle to peace.

Peace talks

But those who claim that Pakistan's hidden hand has shaped the conflict fear the same is now true of the negotiations for peace. Last year, in the Pakistani city of Karachi, Mullah Baradar, the Taliban's second-in-command, was captured by the ISI.

Secretly, Baradar had made contact with the Afghan government to discuss a deal that would end the war. He had done so without the ISI's permission and he was detained "to bring him back under control" according to one British diplomat.

More recently, Hawa Nooristani, a member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, says she was called to a secret meeting.

Waiting for her was a commander from the most lethal faction of the Taliban, the Haqqani network, which first brought suicide bombing to Afghanistan. To her astonishment he said he wanted peace talks.

"He said it was vital Pakistan intelligence knew nothing of the meeting. He said not to disclose it because Pakistan does not want peace with Afghanistan and even now they are training new Taliban units.

"He was also scared that the Pakistanis will arrest him because he lives in Pakistan and he said it would be easy for them to arrest him."

Talks with the Taliban collapsed after the killing of former President Rabbani The Afghan government began peace talks with the Taliban but these were abandoned after its chief negotiator, former President Rabbani, was killed by a suicide bomber purporting to be a Taliban envoy.

Any future peace will have to be concluded with Pakistan President Karzai has since declared

To American policy advisers like Bruce Riedel, the message is clear:

"The ISI may not be able to deliver the Taliban to the negotiating table, but they can certainly spoil any negotiations process. So far, there's very little sign, that I've seen, that Pakistan is interested in a political deal."

While denying links to the Taliban, Pakistan insists that it is doing no more than what any country would do in similar circumstances.

"We cannot disregard our long term interest because this is our own area," said General Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for Pakistan's military.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a recent visit to Pakistan: "The Pakistanis have a role to play, they can either be helpful, indifferent or harmful."

But there are those like Mr Riedel who fear that the forces unleashed in 10 years of war may yet come to haunt the whole world:

"There is probably no worse nightmare, for America, for Europe, for the world, in the 21st Century than if Pakistan gets out of control under the influence of extremist Islamic forces, armed with nuclear weapons...The stakes here are huge."

What happens in Pakistan may yet be the most enduring legacy of 9/11 and the hunt for Bin Laden.

Secret Pakistan is on BBC Two at 9pm on Wednesday 26 October and Wednesday 2 November or watch online afterwards (UK only) via BBC iPlayer.

shyamd wrote: You need media footsoldiers.

Three of General Abbas's brothers are associated with journalism and the media, working with leading media organisations.[2] He is married with three children.[citation needed]

His brothers are Mazhar Abbas (works for ARY and headed the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists for several years), Azhar Abbas (Geo Managing Director), Zaffar Abbas (Editor of Dawn).