SRINAGAR: Former head of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency-Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt General Asad Durrani has said the agency’s influence on the Kashmir insurgency during the ‘90s “turned out less than successful”.
In a freewheeling interview to The Indian Express, Durrani who was head of ISI during ‘90 said he feels his “biggest failure was when the Kashmir uprising happened we did not know how far it would go… When it became lasting, we wondered how to keep a handle on it. We didn’t want it to go out of control, which would lead to a war that neither side wanted. Could we micro-manage it? That was our challenge. ISI’s leverage on the Kashmir insurgency turned out less than successful.”
Durrani, as per the report, has also said the formation of Hurriyat was a “good idea”.
“I think the formation of the Hurriyat to provide a political direction to the resistance was a good idea. Giving up handle on the movement-letting the factions do what they bloody well-wanted to-was not,” the report quoted Durrani as having said.
He has made these comments ahead of the launch of his new book “The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace”, which he has co-authored with A S Dulat, former RAW chief, and journalist Aditya Sinha.