Inter-Services Intelligence
The Inter-Services Intelligence is the foreign intelligence agency agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for counterintelligence, espionage and conducting covert operations around the world. The main objective of the ISI is to covertly collect & analyze intelligence overseas that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security and interests. The ISI reports to its agency executive which is the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence. It is primarily focused on providing foreign intelligence to the Government of Pakistan and the Pakistan Armed Forces. It is part of the Pakistan Intelligence Community.
The ISI primarily consists of both serving military and civilian intelligence officers drawn on secondment from the three intelligence services of the Pakistan Armed Forces: the MI, NI, and AI and the Intelligence Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency, and the Counter Terrorism Department.
Since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in consultation with the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three officers for the position. As of 30 September 2024, the ISI is headed by Lt. Gen. Asim Malik. The Director-General reports directly to both the Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff.
Relatively unknown outside of Pakistan since its inception, the agency gained global recognition and fame in the 1980s when it backed the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War in the former Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Over the course of the conflict, the ISI worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom to run Operation Cyclone, a program to train and fund the mujahideen in Afghanistan with support from China, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim nations.
Following the dissolution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, the ISI provided strategic support and intelligence to the Taliban against the Northern Alliance during the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s. The ISI has strong links with jihadist groups, particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that the Inter-Services Intelligence sponsors and oversees the insurgency in Kashmir by arming separatist militant groups.
History
The Inter-Services Intelligence was established in 1948 by officers of the Pakistan Army after the First Kashmir War, the first of several Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts. It was the brainchild of Brigadier Syed Shahid Hamid who became its first Director-General.The Kashmir War had exposed weaknesses in intelligence gathering, sharing, and coordination between military branches and Pakistani Intelligence Bureau and Military Intelligence. The ISI was thus established to be operated by officers from the newly-independent Pakistan's three main military services, and to specialize in the collection, analysis, and assessment of external military and non-military intelligence.
Naval Commander Syed Mohammad Ahsan, who served as Deputy Director Naval Intelligence of Pakistan and helped formulate ISI procedure, undertook and managed the recruitment and expansion of the ISI. After the 1958 coup d'état, all national intelligence agencies were directly controlled by the president and Chief Martial Law Administrator. The maintenance of national security, which was the principal function of these agencies, resulted in the consolidation of the Ayub regime. Any criticism of the regime was seen as a threat to national security.
The ISI is headquartered in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The complex consists of various low-rise buildings separated by lawns and fountains. The entrance to the complex is next to a private hospital. Declan Walsh from The Guardian stated that the entrance is "suitably discreet: no sign, just a plainclothes officer packing a pistol who directs visitors through a chicane of barriers, soldiers, and sniffer dogs". Walsh noted that the complex "resembles a well-funded private university" and that the buildings are "neatly tended," the lawns are "smooth," and the fountains are "tinkling." He described the central building, which houses the director general's office on the top floor, as "a modern structure with a round, echoing lobby".
On 5 July 1977 through Operation Fair Play, the ISI began collecting intelligence on the Pakistan Communist Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party. The Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s saw the enhancement of the ISI's covert operations. A special Afghanistan section known as the SS Directorate was created under the command of Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf to oversee day-to-day operations in Afghanistan. The ISI's black ops unit is the Covert Action Division. Officers from the Covert Action Division received training in the United States, and "many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen".
Many analysts believe that the ISI provides support to militant groups, though others think these allegations remain unsubstantiated.
The ISI has often been accused of playing a role in major terrorist attacks across India including militancy in Kashmir, the July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the 2006 Varanasi bombings, the August 2007 Hyderabad bombings, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The ISI has been accused of supporting Taliban forces and recruiting and training mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Based on communication interceptions, US intelligence agencies concluded Pakistan's ISI was behind the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on 7 July 2008, a charge that the governments of India and Afghanistan had laid previously. It is believed to be aiding these organizations in eradicating perceived enemies or those opposed to their cause. Satellite imagery from the Federal Bureau of Investigation suggested the existence of several training camps in Pakistan, with at least one militant admitting to being trained in the country. As part of the ongoing Kashmir conflict, Pakistan is alleged to be backing separatist militias. Many nonpartisan sources believe that officials within Pakistan's military and the ISI sympathies with and aid Islamist militant and insurgent groups, saying that the ISI has provided covert, but well-documented support to separatist groups active in Kashmir, including Jaish-e-Mohammed.
General Javed Nasir confessed to assisting the besieged Bosnian Muslims. The National Intelligence Coordination Committee of Pakistan is headed by the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence. The overarching intelligence coordination body was given assent by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in November 2020. It held its inaugural session on 24 June 2021, marking the date the committee became functional.
Organizational structure
A director-general, who is traditionally a serving lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army, heads the ISI. Three deputy director generals, who are serving two-star military officers, report directly to the director general with each deputy heading three wings respectively:- Internal Wing – responsible for domestic intelligence, domestic counter-intelligence, counter-espionage, and counter-terrorism.
- External Wing – responsible for external intelligence, external counter-intelligence, and espionage.
- Foreign Relations Wing – responsible for diplomatic intelligence and foreign relations intelligence.
Directorates
The wings are further divided into various directorates, which are sub-divided into departments, each directorate is usually headed by a major general, air marshal, or rear admiral.| Directorates |
| Director-General, Security and Administration |
| Director-General Analysis |
| Director-General H |
| Director-General Counter-Terrorism |
| Director-General Personnel |
| Director-General, K |
| Director-General X |
| Director-General, F |
| Director-General, Technical |
| Director-General, Counter Intelligence |
| Director-General, Media |
Departments
- Covert Action Division: Its roles are similar to the Special Activities Division of the CIA and a handful of officers are trained by that division. The division has been active since the 1960s.
- Joint Intelligence X: Coordinates the other departments in the ISI. Intelligence and information gathered from the other departments are sent to JIX which prepares and processes the information and from there prepares reports which are presented.
- Joint Intelligence Bureau: Responsible for gathering anti-state intelligence and fake drugs, fake currency, and TTP.
- Joint Counterintelligence Bureau: Focused on foreign intelligence agencies.
- Joint Intelligence North: Exclusively responsible for the Jammu and Kashmir region and Gilgit-Baltistan.
- Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous: Responsible for espionage, including offensive intelligence operations, in other countries.
- Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau: Operates intelligence collections along the India-Pakistan border. The JSIB is the ELINT, COMINT, and SIGINT directorate that is charged with diverting attacks from foreign non-communications electromagnetic radiations emanating from sources other than nuclear detonations or radioactive sources.
- Joint Intelligence Technical: Deals with development of science and technology to advance Pakistani intelligence gathering. The directorate is charged with taking steps against electronic warfare attacks in Pakistan. Without any exception, officers from this division are reported to be engineer officers and military scientists who deal with the military promotion of science and technology. There are also separate explosives and chemical and biological warfare sections.
- SS Directorate: Comprises officers from the Special Services Group. It monitors the activities of terrorist groups that operate against Pakistan. It is comparable to the National Clandestine Service of the CIA, and is responsible for special operations against terrorists.
- Political Internal Division: Monitors the financial funding of the right-wing political science sphere against left-wing political science circles. This department was involved in providing funds to anti-left wing forces during the general elections of 1965, 1977, 1985, 1988, and 1990. The department has been inactive since March 2012 with the new director general taking operational charge of the ISI.