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30-518: After the 1978 Communist seizure of power, Rish Khor camp was the site of a revolt in October 1979: A severe battle occurred at Rishkor, just a few kilometers southwest of the capital. The garrison revolted. Bhasin describes the battle from accounts by eyewitnesses: "There were several hundred casualties in hours of heavy fighting in the Rishkor Division. During the battle which lasted from 14 October to

60-715: A Commando Training Center was established here which serves as the principal site for training the Afghan National Army Commando Corps . The training center was named after a United States Army 5th Special Forces Group soldier, Master Sergeant Kevin Morehead, who was killed in Iraq in September 2003. The camp is reported to house the Rish Khor prison , a secret U.S. detention facility. In October 2016, an attacker wearing

90-532: A confidential report to the Joint Service Commander's Committee, Cawthorn wrote: "In October 1948, Brigadier Shahid Hamid was assigned the task of building this organization from scratch. Despite significant challenges, such as the lack of experienced personnel and essential records, as well as continued staff shortages, he successfully developed the Directorate into a functional organization. He also gained

120-477: A military uniform killed two people near the site. This article about the military of Afghanistan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence ( ISI ; Urdu : بین الخدماتی استخبارات , romanized :  bain-al-xidmātī istixbārāt ) is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community . It

150-451: Is military terminology, used in mainly English speaking countries , to describe general and flag officers . Within NATO's armed forces , the stars are equal to OF-6–10 . A one-star rank is usually the lowest ranking general or flag officer . In many Commonwealth countries, the one-star army rank of Brigadier is considered the highest field officer rank. A two-star rank is usually

180-487: Is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan 's national security . The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government . The ISI primarily consists of serving military officers drawn on secondment from the three service branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces :

210-1406: Is said to have supported Ayub Khan 's rise to power. After his retirement, he helped President Muhammed Zia-ul-Haq . Walter Cawthorn Syed Shahid Hamid HJ Mirza Hamid Hussain Muhammad Afzal Malik Syed Ghawas Sher Bahadur Muhammad Hayat Riaz Hussain Muhammed Akbar Khan Ghulam Jilani Khan Muhammad Riaz Khan Akhtar Abdur Rahman NI(M) HI(M) Hamid Gul HI(M) SBt Shamsur Rahman Kallu HI(M) TBt Asad Durrani HI(M) Javed Nasir HI(M) SBt Javed Ashraf Qazi HI(M) SBt Naseem Rana Ziauddin Butt HI(M) Mahmud Ahmed HI(M) Ehsan ul Haq HI(M) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani HI(M) SI(M) TI(M) Nadeem Taj HI(M) TBt Ahmad Shuja Pasha HI(M) Zaheerul Islam HI(M) Rizwan Akhtar Naveed Mukhtar Asim Munir HI(M) Faiz Hameed HI(M) Nadeem Anjum Asim Malik Three-star rank Military star ranking

240-613: Is usually headed by a major general , air marshal , or rear admiral . The Director General of the ISI is among the most powerful posts in Pakistan. For example, according to Mohammad Sohail, shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange went down in October 2021 over concerns regarding the appointment of the ISI chief. The benchmark KSE-100 index fell 1.51%. According to retired air marshal Shahzad Chaudhry, three to four names are provided by

270-565: The Chief of Army Staff , and the prime minister selects the director general from that list, and the appointed serves for two to three years. Before 2021, the appointment process of the Director-General followed no formal protocol other than verbal discussion between the Prime Minister and the head of the army. Walter Cawthorn was the first head of the ISI. His successor, Syed Shahid Hamid

300-803: 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 . Its special warfare unit is the Covert Action Division . The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that

330-605: 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

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360-569: The Pakistan Army , Pakistan Navy , and Pakistan Air Force , hence the name "Inter-Services"; the agency also recruits civilians. 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,

390-682: The al-Qaeda affiliate Jaish-e-Mohammed ". General Javed Nasir confessed to assisting the besieged Bosnian Muslims, supporting Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang despite a UN arms embargo, rebel Muslim groups in the Philippines, and some religious groups in Central Asia . The National Intelligence Coordination Committee (NICC) of Pakistan is headed by the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence . The overarching intelligence coordination body

420-511: The Afghan 7th Division and 37th Commando Brigade, plus the 88th Artillery Brigade." By July 1981 the division headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division had been relocated from Rishkoor to Moqor . During Soviet occupation it was a Soviet Airborne Troops base. In 1994, troops of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 's Hizb-i Islami and Commander Zardad operated from this base. In 1998, under Taliban rule,

450-620: 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. Officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in

480-624: 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

510-406: The ISI's professional competence. According to some experts, the ISI is the largest intelligence agency in the world in terms of total staff. While the total number has never been made public, experts estimate around 10,000 officers and staff, which does not include informants or assets. The wings are further divided into various directorates, which are sub-divided into departments, each directorate

540-598: The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees the insurgency in Kashmir by arming separatist militant groups. The Inter-Services Intelligence was established in 1948. It was the brainchild of Major General Walter Cawthorn , then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, following the First Kashmir War which had exposed weaknesses in intelligence gathering, sharing, and coordination between

570-628: 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 (mainly Indian and American) 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 ,

600-557: The afternoon of 15 October, the government brought in its tanks, mortars, modern Soviet Mi-24 assault helicopters and bombers." The 444th Commando Regiment was also involved in the suppression of the mutiny. When the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence began their planning to orchestrate Mujaheddin attacks on the Soviet Army , they had among their military targets Rishkoor garrison with "the headquarters of both

630-408: The army, air force, navy, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI). The ISI was structured to be operated by officers from the three main military services and to specialize in the collection, analysis, and assessment of external military and non-military intelligence. While Cawthorn established the ISI, it was Syed Shahid Hamid who was tasked with fully setting up the agency. In

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660-738: 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,

690-475: The existence of several terrorist 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 sympathise with and aid Islamic terrorists , saying that the "ISI has provided covert but well-documented support to terrorist groups active in Kashmir, including

720-540: The place hosted an Al-Qaida training camp for militants from various groups including Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and was said to be Osama bin Laden 's 'University of Terror'. In 2000, BBC 's Kate Clark visited the base and found it 'deserted'. In late 2001, America dropped bombs on this camp for seven nights in a row and obliterated it. Later U.S. special forces raided it and found 'detailed information about chemical, biological and nuclear weapons '. In 2007, Camp Morehead,

750-494: 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. On 5 July 1977 through Operation Fair Play ,

780-413: The second lowest ranking general or flag officer . A three-star rank is usually the third highest general or flag officer . A four-star rank is usually the highest or second highest ranking general or flag officer . A five-star rank is usually the highest ranking general or flag officer . This rank is usually a field marshal , general of the army , admiral of the fleet or marshal of

810-537: The three branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces and paramilitary forces such as ANF , ASF , Pakistan Rangers , Frontier Corps , Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts and Maritime Security Agency as well as civilian officers from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan Customs , Police , Judiciary and Ministry of Defence make up ISI's general staff. They are recruited on deputations for three to four years and enhance

840-524: The trust and cooperation of the Service Intelligence authorities in the United Kingdom. Although much remains to be done, Brigadier Shahid Hamid has achieved far more than seemed possible when he took on the task less than two years ago." Naval Commander Syed Mohammad Ahsan , who served as Deputy Director Naval Intelligence of Pakistan and helped formulate ISI procedure, undertook and managed

870-598: 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 organisations in eradicating perceived enemies or those opposed to their cause, including India, Russia, China, Israel , the United States , the United Kingdom , and other members of NATO . Satellite imagery from the Federal Bureau of Investigation suggest

900-523: 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. 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: Military officers of

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