India has destructive designs to destabilize Pakistan, says former ISI chief

Washington, Aug. 15 (ANI): Former Inter Services Intelligence chief Lieutenant General Hamid Gul has blamed India for creating trouble and fanning unrest inside Pakistan, saying New Delhi has destructive designs to destabilize Pakistan.

In an interview with the Foreign Policy Journal, Lieutenant General Gul blamed the United States for supporting India's subversive acts.

When asked from where the Taliban and other extremist groups in Pakistan were receiving funds, he said it was a conspiracy hatched by India, US and Israel together.

"Yeah, of course they are getting it from across the Durand Line, from Afghanistan. And Mossad is sitting there, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is sitting there they have the umbrella of the US," Gul said without any hesitation.

He claimed that India has created another intelligence agency called RAMA in association with Afghanistan whom primary objective is to destabilize Pakistan.

"They have created another organisation which is called RAMA. It may be news to you that very soon this intelligence agency-of course, they have decided to keep it covert-but it is Research and Analysis Milli Afghanistan. That's the name. The Indians have helped create this organisation, and its job is mainly to destabilise Pakistan," Gul said.

He said Afghanistan has offered India five places to set its base in the region from where it can carry out its covert operation against Islamabad.

Gul asserted that it was due to this reason that New Delhi has raised its defence budget substantially over the years.

"This is why,the Indians, despite a shrinking economy, have continued to raise their defence budget, by 20 percent last year and an additional 34 percent this year," he said.

Commenting on the reports of death of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud, Gul claimed that there were some secret talks going on between the Pakistan Army and Mehsud due to which he was killed.

"Because there were some secret talks going on between Baitullah Mehsud and the Pakistani military establishment. They wanted to reach a peace agreement, and if you recall there is a long history of our tribal areas, whenever a tribal militant has reached a peace agreement with the government of Pakistan, Americans have without any hesitation struck that target," he said. (ANI)