“Pakistan’s main intelligence agency continues to provide financing, training and sanctuary to Afghan Taliban insurgents and exerts a far greater influence on Taliban strategy than previously thought, according to a report prepared by the London School of Economics. Drawing on interviews with Afghan Taliban commanders and former Taliban ministers and officials, the report suggests that Pakistan’s premier intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, supports the Taliban insurgency as a matter of official policy to contain the influence in Afghanistan of its rival India. Both serving and retired officials from the Pakistani intelligence agency are carrying out that policy, the report says.”
– Carlotta Gall, “Report Says Pakistan Intelligence Agency Exerts Great Sway on Afghan Taliban,” The New York Times, June 13, 2010