Inter-Services Intelligence

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; ur, , bayn khadamatiy mukhabarati) is the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. As one of the principal members of the Pakistani intelligence community, the ISI reports to its Director-General and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.

The ISI primarily consists of serving military officers drawn on secondment from the three service branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces (i.e. the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, and Pakistan Air Force), hence the name "Inter-Services"; however, the agency also recruits many civilians. Since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan on the recommendation of the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three officers for the position. , the ISI is currently headed by Lieutenant-General Nadeem Anjum. The ISI director-general reports directly to both the Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff.

The agency gained global recognition and fame in the 1980s, when it backed the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War in the former Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Over the course of the conflict, the ISI worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom to run Operation Cyclone, a program to train and fund the mujahideen in Afghanistan with support from China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim nations.

Following the dissolution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, the ISI provided strategic support and intelligence to the Afghan Taliban against the Northern Alliance during the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees militant separatist groups in Kashmir.

History

The Inter-Services Intelligence was created in 1948 following the first Kashmir war, which had exposed weaknesses in intelligence gathering, sharing, and coordination between the army, air force, navy, Intelligence Bureau (IB), and Military Intelligence (MI). The ISI was structured to be operated by officers from the three main military services and to specialize in the collection, analysis, and assessment of external military and non-military intelligence. The ISI was the brainchild of the former British Indian Army major general Sir Robert Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, and selected Colonel Shahid Hamid to set up the agency. Initially, the ISI had no role in the collection of internal intelligence, except for the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.

Naval Commander Syed Mohammad Ahsan, who was tenuring as deputy director of Naval Intelligence and played a pivotal role in formulating the procedures of the ISI, undertook and managed the recruitment and expansion of the ISI. Following the 1958 coup d'état, all national intelligence agencies came under the direct control of the president and Chief Martial Law Administrator. The maintenance of national security, which was the principal function of these agencies, came to mean the consolidation of the Ayub regime. Any criticism of the regime was seen as a threat to national security.

After Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq had seized power on 5 July 1977, and became the Chief Martial Law Administrator, the ISI was expanded to collecting intelligence on the Pakistan Communist Party and Pakistan Peoples Party. The Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s saw the enhancement of the ISI's covert operations. A special Afghanistan section (called the SS Directorate) was created under the command of Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf to oversee day-to-day operations in Afghanistan. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in the United States, and "many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen."

Many analysts (mainly Indian and American) believe that ISI provides support to militant groups, though according to other analysts, these allegations remain unsubstantiated with evidence.

The ISI has often been accused of playing a role in major terrorist attacks across India including militancy in Kashmir, the July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the 2006 Varanasi bombings, the August 2007 Hyderabad bombings, and the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The ISI has been accused of supporting Taliban forces and recruiting and training mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Based on communication intercepts, US intelligence agencies concluded Pakistan's ISI was behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on 7 July 2008, a charge that the governments of India and Afghanistan had laid previously.

The ISI is believed to be aiding these organisations in eradicating perceived enemies or those opposed to their cause, including India, Russia, China, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other members of NATO. Satellite imagery from the FBI suggest the existence of several terrorist camps in Pakistan, with at least one militant admitting to being trained in the country as part of the ongoing Kashmir Dispute, Pakistan is alleged to be backing separatist militias. Many nonpartisan sources believe that officials within Pakistan's military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sympathise with and aid Islamic terrorists, saying that the "ISI has provided covert but well-documented support to terrorist groups active in Kashmir, including the al-Qaeda affiliate Jaish-e-Mohammed".

General Javed Nasir confessed to assisting the besieged Bosnian Muslims, despite a UN arms embargo supporting Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang, rebel Muslim groups in the Philippines, and some religious groups in Central Asia. The National Intelligence Directorate (NID) was formed in 2014 to pool and share intelligence gathered by over 30 of Pakistan's intelligence agencies to combat terrorism in Pakistan effectively.

Organization

A director general, who is traditionally a serving lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army, heads the ISI. Three deputy director generals, who are serving two-star military officers, report directly to the director general with each deputy heading three wings respectively:
*Internal Wing – responsible for domestic intelligence, domestic counter-intelligence, counter-espionage, and counter-terrorism.
*External Wing – responsible for external intelligence, external counter-intelligence, and espionage.
*Foreign Relations Wing – responsible for diplomatic intelligence and foreign relations intelligence.

The wing is particularly significant because the port at Gwadar is slated to be a linchpin for the major trade corridor linking northwestern China to the Persian Gulf.

Military officers of the armed forces as well as civilian officers from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan Customs, police, and judiciary make up ISI's general staff.. They are recruited on deputations for three to four years and enhance the ISI's professional competence. Experienced army officers who perform well are given repeated extensions in their service. According to some experts, the ISI is the largest intelligence agency in the world in terms of total staff. While the total number has never been made public, experts estimate around 10,000 officers and staff, which does not include informants or assets.

Departments

* Covert Action Division
: Responsible for paramilitary and covert operations as well as special activities. Its roles are akin to the Special Activities Division of the CIA and a handful of officers are trained by the CIA's SAD. The division has been active since the 1960s.
* Joint Intelligence X
: Coordinates all the other departments in the ISI. Intelligence and information gathered from the other departments are sent to JIX which prepares and processes the information and from there prepares reports which are presented.
* Joint Intelligence Bureau
: Responsible for gathering anti-state intelligence and fake drugs, fake currency, and TTP.
* Joint Counterintelligence Bureau
: Focused on foreign intelligence agencies.
* Joint Intelligence North
:exclusively responsible for the Jammu and Kashmir region and Northern Areas.
* Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous
: responsible for espionage, including offensive intelligence operations, in other countries.
* Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau
: operates intelligence collections along the India-Pakistan border. The JSIB is the ELINT, COMINT, and SIGINT directorate that is charged with diverting attacks from foreign non-communications electromagnetic radiations emanating from sources other than nuclear detonations or radioactive sources.
* Joint Intelligence Technical
:deals with development of science and technology to advance Pakistani intelligence gathering. The directorate is charged with taking steps against electronic warfare attacks in Pakistan. Without any exception, officers from this division are reported to be engineer officers and military scientists who deal with the military promotion of science and technology. There are also separate explosives and chemical and biological warfare sections.
* SS Directorate
:Comprises officers from Special services group SG It monitors the activities of terrorist groups that operate against the state of Pakistan. The SS Directorate is comparable to that of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Clandestine Service (NCS), and is responsible for special operations against terrorists.
* Political Internal Division
:Monitors the financial funding of the right-wing political science sphere against the left-wing political science circles. This department was involved in providing funds to the anti-left wing forces during the general elections of 1965, 1977, 1985, 1988, and 1990. The department has been inactive since March 2012 with the new Director General taking operational charge of the ISI.

Directors-General

According to Syed Irfan Raza, the Director-General of ISI is among the most powerful posts in Pakistan. For example, according to Mohammad Sohail, shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange went down in October 2021 over concerns regarding the appointment of the Inter-Services Intelligence chief. The benchmark KSE-100 index fell 1.51%. According to retired air marshal Shahzad Chaudhry, three to four names are provided by the Chief of Army Staff, and the prime minister selects the Director-General from that list. The ISI chief serves for two to three years. According to Ansar Abbasi, before 2021, the appointment process of the Director-General followed no formal protocol other than verbal discussion between the prime minister and the head of the army.

Syed Shahid Hamid was the first head of the ISI. Hamid is said to have supported Field Marshal Ayub Khan's rise to power. After his retirement, Hamid helped President Zia Ul Haq.

Insubordination controversies

Pakistan's army has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history and has been always unwilling to see its influence being compromised by any civilian leaders. In the 1990s, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto appointed retired army officer Shamsur Rahman Kallu as Director-General, but army leaders refused to cooperate with Kallu, as he had refused to engage in martial-law duties under the previous dictator. In October 1998, Ziauddin Butt was chosen as Director-General. Though Butt was not the preferred choice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he grew close with Sharif, and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf took over important ISI files. During a military coup a year later, Musharraf arrested Butt, who had been promoted to Chief of Army Staff by Sharif.

On October 6, 2016, the English daily ''Dawn'' published a report about a government meeting allegedly arranged by Sharif. The article detailed a presentation by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry about international pressure to crack down on Pakistan's extremist segments such as Masood Azhar, the Jaish-i-Mohmmad, Hafiz Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Haqqani network. According to Ghazi Salahuddin of ''The News International,'' controversy ensued after the October meeting and the ''Dawn'' report, which lingered until May 2016. During the October 2016 meeting, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif allegedly revealed that, whenever action had been taken against certain extremist groups by civilian authorities, the security agency had worked secretly to free the arrested parties. According to Salahuddin Ghazi, information minister Pervaiz Rashid lost his portfolio over the ''Dawn'' news leak, and a government notification was released about the civilian government's decision after the meeting. On April 29, 2017, the Director-General released a tweet that said: "Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected." Ghazi stated that a meeting was eventually held between the prime minister and the Chief of Army Staff, and a press conference was held to announce the decision to withdraw the tweet.

2021 disagreement over appointment of ISI Chief

The mainstream media of Pakistan broke the news about the ongoing (October 2021) constitutional rift between civil and armed wings over the appointment of the D.G. post only after ministers spoke on the matter. In the first week, October 6, 2021, the Pakistan military's media affairs wing announced the replacement of Faiz Hameed with Nadeem Anjum. After 2 days, it first came to light in social media that the federal government of Pakistan had yet to issue any formal notification for the appointment of the new DG ISI. Rumors got credence further when Gen. Faiz attended the National Security Committee meeting instead of the expected new DG ISI.

A week later on 13 October 2021 Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry informed media that the process of a fresh appointment of DG ISI is still underway and that the selection is Prime Minister Imran Khan's prerogative. He also noted that the Army chief and the Prime Minister are in agreement about following correct procedures of appointment according to the Constitution.

Malik Dogar, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, later said in a talk show that PM Imran Khan wanted General Faiz to continue as DG ISI for some more months after taking into consideration the expertise of General Faiz on the situation in Afghanistan. Dogar further stated that during the cabinet meeting, the prime minister stressed that, if the army is a respected institution then the PM Office is also a respected one.

Headquarters

The ISI is headquartered in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The complex consists of various low-rise buildings separated by lawns and fountains. The entrance to the complex is next to a private hospital. Declan Walsh of ''The Guardian'' said that the entrance is "suitably discreet: no sign, just a plainclothes officer packing a pistol who directs visitors through a chicane of barriers, soldiers, and sniffer dogs". Walsh said that the complex "resembles a well-funded private university" and that the buildings are "neatly tended," the lawns are "smooth," and the fountains are "tinkling." He described the central building, which houses the director general's office on the top floor, as "a modern structure with a round, echoing lobby".

Recruitment and training

Both civilians and members of the armed forces can join the ISI. For civilians, recruitment is advertised and is jointly handled by the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC) and civilian ISI agents are considered employees of the Ministry of Defence. The FPSC conducts various examinations testing the candidate's knowledge of current affairs, English, and various analytical abilities. Based on the results, the FPSC shortlists the candidates and sends the list to the ISI who conduct the initial background checks. Selected candidates are then invited for an interview which is conducted by a joint committee comprising both ISI and FPSC officials. The selected persons are then sent to the Defence Services Intelligence Academy (DSIA) for six months of training. Later, these officers are transferred to different sections for open source information where they serve for five years. After five years of basic service, officers are entrusted with sensitive jobs and declared the core team of ISI.

Major operations

Functions

* Collection of information and extraction of intelligence from information
: ISI obtains information critical to Pakistan's strategic interests. Both overt and covert means are adopted.
* Classification of intelligence

: Data is sifted through, classified as appropriate, and filed with the assistance of the computer network in ISI's headquarters in Islamabad.
* Aggressive intelligence
: The primary mission of ISI includes aggressive intelligence which comprises espionage, psychological warfare, subversion, and sabotage.
* Counterintelligence
: ISI has a dedicated section which spies against enemy intelligence collection.

Methods

* Diplomatic missions
: Diplomatic missions provide an ideal cover and ISI centres in a target country are generally located on embassy premises.
* Multinationals
: ISI operatives find good covers in multinational organisations. Non-governmental organisations and cultural programmes are also popular screens to shield ISI activities.
* Media
: International media centres can easily absorb ISI operatives and provide freedom of movement.
* Collaboration with other agencies
: ISI maintains active collaboration with other secret services in various countries. Its contacts with Saudi Arabian Intelligence Services, Chinese Intelligence, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) have been well-known.
* Third Country Technique
: ISI has been active in obtaining information and operating through third countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Turkey, and China.

By country

Afghanistan

* 1982–1997
:ISI is believed to have had access to Osama bin Laden in the past. B. Raman, former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer now an Indian think-tank, of South Asia Analysis Group, claims that the Central Intelligence Agency through the ISI promoted the smuggling of heroin into Afghanistan to turn Soviet troops into heroin addicts and thus greatly reduce their fighting potential. The factions that were backed by the ISI were Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami, and the forces fighting for Jalaluddin Haqqani.
* 1986
:Worrying that among the large influx of Afghan refugees who had come into Pakistan because of the Soviet–Afghan War were members of KHAD (Afghan Intelligence), the ISI successfully convinced Mansoor Ahmed, who was the chargé d'affaires of the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, to turn his back on the Soviet-backed Afghan government. He and his family were secretly escorted out of their residence and given safe passage on a London-bound British Airways flight in exchange for classified information in regard to Afghan agents in Pakistan. The Soviet and Afghan diplomats tried unsuccessfully to find the family.
* 1990
:According to Peter Tomsen, the United States Special Envoy to Afghanistan, neighboring Pakistan had tried to install Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in power in Afghanistan against the opposition of all other mujahideen commanders and factions as early as 1990. In October 1990, the ISI had devised a plan for Hekmatyar to conduct a mass bombardment of the Afghan capital Kabul, then still under communist rule, with possible Pakistani troop reinforcements. This unilateral ISI-Hekmatyar plan came although the thirty most important mujahideen commanders had agreed to hold a conference inclusive of all Afghan groups to decide on a common future strategy. The United States finally put pressure on Pakistan to stop the 1990 plan, which was subsequently called off until 1992.
* 1994
: The Taliban regime is widely accepted to have been supported by the ISI and the Pakistani military from 1994 to 2001, which Pakistan officially denied during that time. Then-Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, now admits to supporting the Taliban until 9/11. According to Pakistani Afghanistan expert Ahmed Rashid, "between 1994 and 1999, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistanis trained and fought in Afghanistan" on the side of the Taliban. Following the 9/11 attack on the United States by Al-Qaeda, Pakistan says it felt it necessary to cooperate with the US. Others, however, maintain Pakistan continues to support the Afghan Taliban, which Pakistan rejects.
* 2008
: Militants attacked the Indian Consulate General in Jalalabad in 2007. According to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, individuals arrested by the Afghan government stated that the ISI was behind the attack and had given them ₹120,000 for the operation.
* 2001 onwards
: American officials believe members of the Pakistani intelligence service are alerting militants to imminent American missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas. In October 2009, Davood Moradian, a senior policy adviser to foreign minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, said the British and American governments were fully aware of the ISI's role but lacked the courage to confront Islamabad. He claimed that the Afghan government had given British and American intelligence agents evidence that proved ISI involvement in bombings.
* 2010
: A new report by the London School of Economics (LSE) claimed to provide the most concrete evidence yet that the ISI is providing funding, training, and sanctuary to the Taliban insurgency on a scale much larger than previously thought. The report's author, Matt Waldman, spoke to nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan and concluded that Pakistan's relationship with the insurgents ran far deeper than previously realised. Some of those interviewed suggested that the organisation even attended meetings of the Taliban's supreme council, the Quetta Shura. A spokesman for the Pakistani military dismissed the report, describing it as "malicious". General David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command, refused to endorse this report in a US congressional hearing and suggested that any contacts between ISI and extremists are for legitimate intelligence purposes; in his words, "you have to have contact with bad guys to get intelligence on bad guys".

Bosnia

* 1993
: The ISI was involved in supplying arms to the Bosnian mujahideen in Bosnia-Herzegovina to prevent a total genocide of Muslims at the hands of the Serbs.

India

Indian intelligence agencies have claimed they have proof of ISI involvement with the Naxalites. A classified report accessed by the Indian newspaper ''Asian Age'' said "the ISI in particular wants Naxals to cause large-scale damage to infrastructure projects and industrial units operating in the interior parts of the country where ISI's own terror network is non-existent".

* 1965
: The 1965 war in Kashmir provoked a major crisis in intelligence. When the war began, there was a complete collapse of the operations of all the intelligence agencies. They were apparently unable to locate an Indian armored division because of their preoccupation with political affairs. Ayub Khan set up a committee headed by General Yahya Khan to examine the agencies' workings.
* 1969–1974
: According to Indian spymaster B. Raman, the Central Intelligence Agency and ISI worked in tandem with the Nixon Administration in assisting the Khalistan movement in Punjab.
* 1980
: The PAF Field Intelligence Unit at their base in Karachi in July 1980 captured an Indian agent. He was interrogated and revealed that a large network of Indian spies was functioning in Karachi. The agent claimed that these spies, in addition to espionage, had also assassinated a few armed personnel. He also said the leader of the spy ring was being headed by the food and beverages manager at the Intercontinental Hotel in Karachi and a number of serving Air Force officers and ratings were on his payroll. The ISI decided to question the manager to see who he was in contact with, but then-president of Pakistan