Pakistan linked to Afghan bombing

The U.S. has evidence that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped plan the July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan.

The tense relations between the United States and Pakistan were under additional strain this week after the U.S. said it had evidence that Pakistan’s spy agency helped plan the July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan, which left 60 people dead. Communications from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency intercepted by the U.S. “confirmed some suspicions that were widely held,” a State Department official told The New York Times. In the wake of the finding, the CIA dispatched a top official to confront the Pakistani government over ISI support for the Taliban, and President Bush personally raised the issue with Pakistan’s new prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, during Gilani’s Washington visit last week.

After meeting with Bush, Gilani pledged to put the largely independent ISI under the control of his civilian government. But he reversed himself almost immediately after receiving hostile calls from army generals. A similar promise to purge the ISI of Taliban sympathizers was also followed by a swift retraction.

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