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Ex-ISI officials may be helping Taliban

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s intelligence service has played no role in propping up the renegade Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, President General Pervez Musharraf told US television Sunday, although he is investigating possible support to the rebels from retired Pakistani intelligence officials.

Asked whether Islamabad’s Inter-Services Intelligence has been helping the ousted Taliban, Musharraf, speaking on NBC television’s “Meet the Press” programme, answered with an emphatic “no”. “Nobody in the ISI has,” the president said.

However he added, “I have some reports that some dissidents, some people, retired people who were in the forefront in ISI during the period of ‘1979 to ‘1989, may be assisting with their links somewhere here and there,” he said.

“We are keeping a very tight watch, and we’ll get a hold of them if at all that happens.” He also expressed concern that support for the Taliban may be more widespread than many observers are aware.

“They don’t know the realities on (the) ground. They’re not conscious of the reality I’m seeing — the extreme danger of this becoming a peoplee’s movement,” he said. afp

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