Pakistan angry over Taliban support claims

Updated June 14, 2010 18:57:36

Pakistan has responded angrily to renewed allegations that its military intelligence agency, the ISI, is actively supporting Taliban militants in Afghanistan - and on a much larger scale than previously thought. The report, commissioned by the London School of Economics, says Taliban field commanders that it interviewed, suggested that ISI intelligence agents even attended Taliban Supreme Council meetings. The report follows one of the deadliest weeks for NATO troops in Afghanistan, with over thirty soldiers killed.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Rajan Menon, South Asia security analyst and Professor at City College of New York

MENON: The report I think confirms something that we've known for quite some time now from academic studies from journalists who've been in the field in Afghanistan, as indeed as you mentioned in the lead up from ex-Taliban fighters. It's not surprising that the ISI would react negatively to this because they want to be seen as in the forefront of the anti-Taliban fight, that's how they're presenting themselves to the Americans.

LAM: Well the alleged involvement of the ISI, as you say that's been reported for some time, but for it to be so closely linked to even attend Taliban Supreme Council meetings, do you find that surprising?

MENON: Well yes and no, there has always been since the creation of the Taliban substantial assistance from the ISI at the time, I'm talking about 1994, an ongoing relationship. But since 9/11 and the involvement of the American military in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, there's been a dual relationship between the ISI and the Taliban. On the one hand fighting, capturing operatives, handing them over to the Americans or interrogating them themselves, that's one element of it. And the ISI has been particularly hard on the Pakistani wing of the Taliban, the so-called Tehrik-i-Taliban, because they see them as a threat to the Pakistani state. On the other hand there have been close ties with three Afghan Taliban groups; first the Afghan Taliban, the Taliban Shura headed by Mohammad Omar. Second, two groups that were active in fighting the Soviets, Afghan Pashtun militant groups, the Hakani group and the Hezb
LAM: So are you saying then that the ISI is operating with the full knowledge of the Pakistani government?

MENON: It's very hard Sen to make a separation between the ISI and the Pakistani government, they are very, very closely fused, in fact since the creation of Pakistan as a state the military and the government there's been a very thin line between the two. I don't think on national security issues any civilian leader in Pakistan takes a step that is out of kilter with what the military and the ISI want as corporate entities.

LAM: Well the ISI and the government may be intertwined, but how do you think President Asif Ali Zardari might explain this all the way to the White House, given that Washington has always been on Pakistan's case to back away from supporting the militants?

MENON: Yes I think what he will do is to do what the Pakistani government has done for many years and when confronted with these kind of studies and this kind of evidence to say look, this is pure rubbish, look at the number of Taliban what we've killed, look at the number that we've captured, look at the number of intelligence breakthroughs there have been because of cooperation from us, and that this report is totally to be discredited. I think that will be the line and that has in fact as you mentioned in your lead up, been the line.

LAM: But the report also claims that the government has indeed released some captured Taliban from captivity?

MENON: Right this goes back to my point that whatever Mr Zardari might in fact say, that when it comes to the relationship with the Taliban there's dual policy, which is has very much been crafted by the military and the ISI. He, the President Zardari, has very little running room it seems to me. That that policy is very much crafted and implemented by the combination of the ISI and the military, the Pakistani national security operatus if you will.