Pak-US intelligence sharing at lowest level

Peshawar, Apr 15 (ANI): The US and Pakistan are at the "lowest level" of intelligence-sharing, cooperation and coordination against al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, according to senior officials.

"The level of cooperation has gone so low that the US now even does not intimate Pakistan after a drone strike in FATA," a senior official said in a reflection of the two countries' relations in the background of a growing insurgency in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The official said that the deterioration in intelligence sharing, cooperation and coordination was gradual.

"In (late) 2001, 2002 and 2003, the relations were good, as both sides were sharing intelligence and coordinating attacks against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. At first, cooperation was such that the two countries shared any intelligence any side brought forward," the Daily Times quoted him, as saying.

"From there, it went down to the level where the US used to intimate Pakistan minutes before carrying out strikes. And then, it dropped to a level at which the US informed Pakistan after carrying out a strike in the Tribal Areas," the official added.

"Today, the US does not even intimate us about a strike it carries out inside Pakistan ... and the reason for this is that the Americans have established their own network of intelligence across FATA and they no longer need their Pakistani counterparts' help."

Meanwhile, a senior military commander also acknowledged growing CIA influence in FATA.

"I think the US has penetrated militant groups or they are using money," Frontier Corps chief Major General Tariq Khan said.

Over a dozen spies from the Intelligence Bureau and ISI have been killed in the Tribal Areas and settled districts. (ANI)