Pak admits for first time some elements in ISI may be in cohorts with terrorists
2 Aug 2008, 0933 Hrs

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Washington, Aug.2 (ANI): Pakistan's Information Minister and government spokesman, Sherry Rehman, has shockingly revealed that some officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are probably working against official policy, and steps are being taken to identify them so that they can be removed.

"There are "probably" individuals in the ISI working against official policy. The authorities need to identify these people and weed them out," the Washington Times quoted Rehman, as saying.

According to the paper, this is first acknowledgment from Pakistan's new civilian government that Taliban sympathizers may be ensconced in the agency.

Though Islamabad has denied allegations that the ISI was involved in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 7, U.S. counter-terrorism officials say "there are indications that elements of the ISI provided support to those believed responsible for carrying out the attack" on the embassy.

Members of the ISI were thought to have been working with the Jalaluddin Haqqani network, a Taliban group with strong ties to al Qaeda, according to several U.S. intelligence and defense officials.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Sadiq described the report as "total rubbish."

In a meeting with reporters and editors Wednesday at The Washington Times, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said U.S. concerns about collusion between members of his intelligence agency and terrorists would be taken seriously and "would be resolved."

He said no evidence had been brought to him, as of yet, concluding that members of the ISI were involved in the July 7 bombing that left 42 dead. More than 150 people were taken to hospitals in the city. (ANI)