Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), working closely with the agencies of allied countries, has played a pivotal role in aborting several terrorists' plots against Western countries, Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram has said.
Responding to a recent dispatch in the New York Times that ISI had lost control of some of the Taliban and al Qaeda-linked networks, he said that since 9/11, the Pakistani Army, including the ISI, had been in a frontline role in the fight against terrorism.
Dealing with other aspects of the dispatch in a letter to Times published in the newspapers' on Tuesday edition, the ambassador said, "Suicide bombing is a phenomenon imported from Iraq and Afghanistan, alien to Pakistan." He also said the strategy to support the Afghans against Soviet military intervention was evolved by several intelligence agencies, including the CIA and ISI.
"After the Soviet withdrawal, the Western powers walked away from the region, leaving behind 40,000 militants imported from several countries to wage the anti-Soviet Jihad," Ambassador Akram said, adding Pakistan was left to face the blow back of extremism, drugs and guns.
"The post-9/11 intervention in Afghanistan led to a further inflow of extremists and terrorists from Afghanistan. As Pakistan's national security objectives have changed, so have the policies and personnel of ISI."
The ambassador said: "Like the United States and Nato forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan also faces challenges in fighting the terrorists in a difficult terrain. Tactics often evolve through trial and error. Anti-insurgent capacity has to be built up. Yet, given her role and sacrifices, Pakistan's commitment to combat terrorism cannot be questioned."
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