Jalauiddin Haqqani was invited to White House: ex-ISI chief

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Press Trust of India Islamabad
Last Updated : Jul 09 2013 | 8:05 PM IST
Former ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has admitted that the deadly Haqqani network was created by it and the US' CIA and claimed that the insurgent group's chief Jalaluddin Haqqani had "in fact been invited to the White House by President (Ronald) Reagan".
According to the damning remarks by Pasha, leaked by Al Jazeera news channel, the country under military ruler Pervez Musharraf and the US had reached a "political" understanding on the use of the CIA-operated drones targeting Islamist militants, notwithstanding Pakistan's public denouncement of American strikes.
"Regarding the so-called Haqqani network, the DG ISI said that it had been created by both the CIA and ISI against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Jalaluddin Haqqani had in fact been invited to the White House by President Reagan," the Abbottabad Commission's leaked report said.
Though the year in which Haqqani was invited was not part of the report, Reagan was US President between 1981-89.
Pasha headed ISI at the time of bin Laden's killing by US Navy SEALs in 2011.
He said though the fighting core of the Haqqani group in Afghanistan had been placed on the UN sanction list, its non- combat members had not been placed on the list.
"The ISI was in contact only with these non-sanctioned members of the Haqqani group who were responsible for administrative and other matter. The UK, Italy and some other countries were also in touch with them," the report published by Al Jazeera said.
Haqqani network, the main fighting force against the NATO troops in Afghanistan, has in the past been referred to as the "veritable arm" of the ISI by US' former top military commander Mike Mullen.
Haqqani network is also blamed for the bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.
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First Published: Jul 09 2013 | 8:05 PM IST

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