ISI has influence over terrorists, Mush tells CNN

A spokesman of Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that a statement by Pakistan’s former military ruler has been misinterpreted by the Indian media and was not being presented in the correct context. Musharraf said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that there is “ingress of the ISI in every terrorist group”.

“Always, in every group, there is an ingress of the ISI. And that is the efficiency, the effectiveness of the ISI. You must have ingress, so that you can influence all organisations,” Musharraf told CNN.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman refused to comment, saying he was unaware of the interview and that if Musharraf had said anything to that effect, the remarks must be “actually” coming from the security agencies to defend themselves.

Musharraf’s lawyer Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that in the CNN interview, the general had referred to pre-9/11 ties between the ISI and militants. He said 9/11 changed the ISI-militants relationship. “If you go through the contents of the interview, Musharraf repeatedly pleaded that whatever had happened in the past should not happen again,” Hussain said.

In 2006, when he was in power, Musharraf had admitted in an interview that there were renegade elements within the Pakistani establishment who, despite an official U-turn against the Taliban, were pursuing their jehadi agenda.

In the interview, Musharraf also alleged that Afghanistan is under the influence of Indian intelligence agencies. “Afghan intelligence, Afghan president, Afghan government. Don’t talk of them. I know what they do. They are, by design, they mislead the world… They talk against Pakistan, because they are under the influence of Indian intelligence, all of them,” he said.