ISI, Pakistan army target India to unsettle Sharif: CIA expert

Washington: Pakistan’s powerful army and the ISI are using “terrorist brinkmanship” to threaten India and undermine their own Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to secure domestic gains against their civilian leaders, a former CIA analyst has said. “Pakistan’s ISI directorate is using terrorist brinkmanship to threaten India and undermine Nawaz Sharif,” Bruce O. Riedel said.

On Wednesday, “to complicate the situation further, al Qaeda released a new videotape of its leader, Ayman Zawahiri, announcing the creation of an al Qaeda franchise in India”, he wrote in the Daily Beast.Amid growing concern in India over the formation of new al-Qaida franchise in India, Mr Riedel said there was no doubt that al-Qaida leader Ayman Al Zawahiri made the latest tape in his hideout in Pakistan.

“Zawahiri made the tape in his hideout in Pakistan, no doubt, and many Indians suspect the ISI is helping to protect him. Zawahiri has longstanding links to LeT and to (Hafiz) Saeed,” Mr Riedel said, adding, “The domestic politics of Pakistan are central to this drama, and to this threat.”“One of the goals of the attack on the Indian consulate in Herat was to discredit Sharif, who has no control over the ISI or the army. The army is very upset that he has put the former army dictator Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason,” he said.