With the U.S. trial of a terror operative bringing out the ISI link to 26/11, the former Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Shaharyar Khan, has said that lower-level rogue elements in the spy agency might be involved in the carnage.
He, however, said he had “very much doubt” that the ISI and military as institutions would like to be part of something like Mumbai attacks as that would be “counter-productive.”
“I think there is no doubt that whosoever this Major Iqbal is, was in touch with this man [David Headley],” he told Karan Thapar in the “Devil's Advocate” programme of CNN-IBN when asked about the evidence coming out in Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana's trial about an ISI officer's links to 26/11.
“But the crucial question is that did Major Iqbal act under instruction from the ISI hierarchy or is he one of those people who are operating on their own at lower levels.”
Mr. Khan said he was ready to accept involvement of lower-level staff of the ISI with terror elements.
On possibility of Pakistan's nuclear assets falling into the hands of jihadis, Mr. Khan said he was confident of their safety. Probed further if he could completely rule out the possibility of jihadi sympathisers laying hands on fissile material, he said, “I will not be 100 per cent sure but 99 per cent sure that this will not be allowed to happen.”
