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Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (also Inter-Services Intelligence or I.S.I.) is the principal intelligence body of the nation of Pakistan. The ISI provided most of the operational and organizational leadership during the U.S.-funded insurgency in Afghanistan against the USSR. It was also critical in supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. India accuses the ISI of supporting rebels in the separatist Kashmir region, but Pakistan maintains that the ethnic instability in India is playing out in Kashmir by indigenous freedom fighters. Incidentally, both archrivals accuse each other of fomenting domestic instability in their respective countries.
Roots
The roots of the ISI go back to the U.S.-backed guerrilla war to oust the Soviet Army from Afghanistan in the 1980s. That Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed effort flooded Pakistan with weapons and with Afghan, Pakistani and Arab "mujahideen", who were motivated to fight as a united force protecting fellow Muslims in Soviet occupied Afghanistan. The CIA relied on the ISI to train fighters, distribute arms, and channel money.
During the Soviet invasion from 1979–1989, the ISI monitored the activities of and provided advice and support to the mujahideen, and commandos from the Army's Special Services Group helped guide the operations inside Afghanistan. The ISI trained about 83,000 Afghan mujahideen between 1983 and 1997, and dispatched them to Afghanistan.
Since its inception, one of the goals of the ISI has been to gather intelligence in India. ISI has allegedly supported various insurgent groups throughout India, in locations such as the Punjab, Kashmir, and Assam, complementing the "moral" support offered by the Pakistani government to these groups. While it has yet to provide evidence, India accuses the ISI of complicity in various domestic attacks on its soil (including the Mumbai and the Parliament House) in addition to the insurgence-prone areas.
External links
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