Military spokesman Athar Abbas said the Inter-Services Intelligence had contacts with the Haqqani Network but it does not mean that Pakistan Army supports the feared Taliban faction. “Any intelligence agency would like to maintain contact with whatever opposition group, whatever terrorist organisation … for some positive outcome,” he told CNN in a telephone interview.
However, those contacts do not mean that the ISI supports or endorses the organisation, he added. “If someone is blaming us [as] the only country maintaining contacts with the Haqqanis, there are others, too,” Abbas said. There is a huge difference between maintaining contacts with such a group to facilitate peace and supporting it against an ally, he said.
He said the Haqqani Network was based in Nooristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan. Abbas also dismissed Admiral Mike Mullen’s statement in which he accused the ISI of involvement in Kabul attacks, and warned that any unilateral US operation in Pakistan would provoke severe anti-American sentiments.
