Pakistan named a new chief for its main intelligence service, a change sure to be closely scrutinized by US officials who have questioned the powerful spy agency’s loyalties in the “war on terror.”
The appointment of Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha as head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was among several changes in what appeared to be a major shake-up of the military leadership.
In his most recent capacity as director-general of military operations, Pasha oversaw military offensives against insurgents in the nuclear-armed nation’s restive northwest.
The region is reportedly home to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants involved in attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as rising strikes within Pakistan.
The statement late on Monday gave no more details about Pasha, but Pakistani defense analyst Talat Masood described him as “highly professional.”
Pasha replaces Lieutenant-General Nadeem Taj, who was in the position about a year after being appointed by former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf, a former army chief and US ally, was forced to quit the presidency in August amid threats of impeachment by the fledgling civilian government.
The statement listed several new postings that are expected to take effect in several weeks.
Masood said that the changes appeared to be an effort by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who succeeded Musharraf as army chief and once headed the ISI himself, to consolidate his control over the military.
US intelligence agencies suspect rogue elements in the ISI have been giving Taliban militants sensitive information to aid them in their growing insurgency in Afghanistan.
India and Afghanistan — and reportedly the US — also suspect the agency of involvement in the July 7 bombing outside India’s Embassy in Kabul that killed more than 60 people. Pakistan denies the allegations.
Pakistani intelligence helped create the Taliban militia, many of whose leaders and recruits studied at religious schools in Pakistan.
The army statement said Taj has been appointed Corps Commander for Gujranwala.
Major Murad Khan, an army spokesman, said yesterday that Major-General Javed Iqbal would succeed Pasha as director-general of military operations. He declined to provide any details about Iqbal.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.