Operatives in Pakistan's military intelligence are directly aiding Taliban's campaign in southern Afghanistan, despite official claims that ISI has severed all relations with the extremists, a media report said in New York on Thursday.
The Taliban's widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in
Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the
New York Times said, citing US government officials.
The support, it said consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are
gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements.
Support for Taliban and other militant groups is coordinated by operatives in the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan's spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials were quoted as saying.
It said there is even evidence that ISI operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before Afghan elections.
The report contradicted oft repeated claims by Pakistan's top officials that ISI has cut-off all relations with Taliban and other militant groups. But the inability or unwillingness, of the embattled civilian government to break ties that bind the ISI to the militants illustrates the complexities of a region of shifting alliances, it said.
In a sign of just how resigned Western officials are to the ties, the Times quoted one official as saying that the UK government has sent several dispatches to Islamabad in recent months asking that the ISI use its strategy meetings with the Taliban to persuade its commanders to scale back violence in Afghanistan before the August presidential