Pathankot attacks done by ISI, claims former top White House official Bruce Riedel

ISI, the powerful intelligence agency of Pakistan is behind the recent attack on Pathankot air base in Punjab, says former top White House official Bruce Riedel. Riedel also said that the attack was done using a terrorist group that ISI had created 15 years ago.

Riedel has worked in the National Security Council of the White House and was among the few people who were present at the Bill Clinton-Nawaz Sharif meeting that happened in 1999 during the Kargil war. He stated that the attack was meant to prevent any friendly ties between India and Pakistan, which looked promising after the recent surprise visit that Indian PM Narendra Modi paid to Pakistan.

The article, which was written for the Daily Beast, stated that the Pathankot attacks and the one the Indian Consulate in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan was done via terror group Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a group that ISI created 15 years ago. Regarding the authenticity of his claims, he mentioned "well-informed press and other knowledgeable sources".

"Any diminution in tensions with India might risk the army's lock on its control of Pakistan's national security policy. The army continues to distinguish between 'good' terrorists like JEM and LET and 'bad' terrorists like the Pakistani Taliban, despite decades of lectures from American leaders," he said.

Riedel, who is a former CIA officer, further stated that because of Nawaz Sharif’s friendly nature towards India, the Pakistani army has long distrusted him.

"An army coup in 1999 sent him into exile in Saudi Arabia for a decade. His warm embrace of Modi on Christmas Day in his home in Lahore undoubtedly angered the generals," he said.

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