Pakistan ISI Admits Supporting Insurgency in India's Northeast

By Dipanjan Roy

Former ISI chief Asad Durrani made the admission during a Pakistan Supreme Court hearing.

Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has admitted to meddling in India's Northeast and funding the right-wing Bangladesh National Party (BNP) during the 1991 general elections in that country.

The admission came from no less than former ISI chief Asad Durrani during a Pakistan Supreme Court hearing on the spy agency's mandate on Wednesday.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary grilled the former spy agency chief on ISI's funding for politicians both within and outside Pakistan.

Recently a UAE-based daily had alleged that ISI paid Rs 50 crore to BNP chairperson and former PM Khaleda Zia ahead of the 1991 elections in which the BNP won and formed the government.

There are allegations that the ISI has been active in Bangladesh whenever the BNP has been in power (1991-96) and later during 2001-06.

The spy agency was also alleged to have launched a campaign from Bangladesh to destabilise the Northeast by patronising and providing logistic support, including funds, to the insurgent groups operating from Bangladesh.

The ISI is alleged to have supported a network in Bangladesh, which includes the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), the BNP and Northeast rebel groups during the BNP's rule.