The Hindu : Front Page : Who is controlling ISI, asks India

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Saturday, Aug 02, 2008
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Who is controlling ISI, asks India

Sandeep Dikshit

COLOMBO: While maintaining that it was too early to link the blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore to any outside agency, India on Friday said it “would like to know” who controls Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

“India draws a clear line of distinction between the Pakistan government and rogue intelligence agencies. But like [U.S. President George] Bush we would like to know who is controlling the ISI,” said top government sources.

New Delhi was committed to normalising ties with Islamabad but internal turmoil in the country affected the working of the joint terror mechanism. This gave rise to the apprehension that there were several power centres in Pakistan, said the sources.

India was not prepared to attribute motives till investigations reached a decisive stage in the Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts but believed it had “clean evidence” on the ISI’s involvement in the suicide attack on the Embassy in Kabul that left about 60, including four Indians, dead.

The government was not aware of the “Indian Mujahideen,” which claimed to have masterminded the serial blasts, but felt it would be a combination of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Laskhar-e-Taiba and the Students Islamic Movement of India, said the sources.

While the “inspiration” came from outside, a great deal of local support was evident.

Although the blasts in Ahmedabad and Jaipur were similar, the investigating agencies noticed a great deal of sophistication in the Bangalore serial blasts. However, they felt it was premature to blame any outside intelligence agency because investigations were in the preliminary stages.

On India’s quest to break out of isolation from global nuclear commerce, the sources said the U.S. draft for the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) needed “some tweaking,” but “we must get a clean exemption.”

Indian diplomats and other senior government leaders have been meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board member-countries as well as the NSG members. The impression so far was that most major world powers, including Canada, the U.K., Russia and France, were comfortable with the idea of India’s entry into the global commerce mainstream, the sources said.

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