Report: Pakistani ISI backs Taliban

The report is based on interviews with Taliban commanders in Afghanistan [Getty] A report by a leading British institution claims that Pakistan's intelligence service has a direct link with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Published by the London School of Economics, the report on Sunday said that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) has an "official policy" of support for the Taliban. It claims the ISI provides funding and training for the Taliban, and that the agency has representatives on the so-called Quetta Shura, the Taliban's leadership council, which is believed to meet in Pakistan. The report is based on interviews with Taliban commanders in Afghanistan, and was written by Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University. US officials have long suspected a link between the ISI and the Taliban, but those suspicions are rarely confirmed. "Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude," the report said. A Pakistani diplomatic source dismissed the report as "naive". 'Apparent duplicity' The report also links high-level members of the Pakistani government with the Taliban. It claims Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, met with senior Taliban prisoners earlier this year and promised to release them. Zardari reportedly told the detainees they were only arrested because of American pressure. "The Pakistan government's apparent duplicity - and awareness of it among the American public and political establishment - could have enormous geopolitical implications," Waldman said. "Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency." Afghan officials have long been suspicious of the ISI's role. Amrullah Saleh, the former director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, told Reuters last week that the ISI was "part of a landscape of destruction in this country". Saleh resigned last week over a dispute with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.