The murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and the macabre videotape of the killing his kidnappers prepared, has provided Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf the opportunity to clip the wings of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), long considered to be the 'invisible government' of Pakistan. Military sources say it's only a matter of time before the ISI is restructured and reformed, its ranks completely purged of those who have a pronounced jehadi orientation. A tentative beginning has been made through the policy of reverting ISI officials to their military cadres.
This became inevitable following the investigations the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been conducting into the Pearl kidnap case. For one, two former ISI officials, Khalid Khwaja and Aslam Khan Sherani, were found to have close links to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime suspect in the Pearl kidnap case. Second, Omar has reportedly confessed to have been an ISI operative. Third, the FBI has proof that former ISI chief Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed backed Masood Azhar to launch the...
Urged To Purge: The ISI Facelift
Links between the black-ops specialist outfit and the gruesome kidnapping force a reorganisation
AP
