LAHORE - The acting head of Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) is most likely to meet chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) today, informed sources told The Nation yesterday.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of revelations by a top TTP leader about NDS nexus with Indian intelligence agency, RAW, against Pakistan and the terror attack on Bacha Khan University which was controlled from Afghan soil, they said.

Latif Ullah Mehsud, the second high-ranking leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in startling disclosures some days back in a video confession statement told the interrogators about the joint role of NDS and RAW in using the TTP to destabilise Pakistan.

A TTP group, controlled by Umar Naray had carried out three major terror attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, first of them being the most gruesome attack at Army Public School (APS) on December 16, 2014. The second attack came on Badaber Airforce Base in September 2015. The Naray gang attacked another educational institution, Bacha Khan University, on January 20, 2016.

After successful military operation in north-western tribal areas of Pakistan the anti-state militant groups, especially the TTP, shifted their bases to Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nooristan. They have been freely operating from there since then and planning and launching attacks on Pakistani soil with the alleged help of Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies.

The security establishment in Islamabad, of which ISI is a key part, expects from Kabul credible assurance that sections of its political administration and the NDS are not involved at any level in assisting the likes of the TTP in attacking Pakistan, said the informed sources.
The security establishment wants to know in black and white how the RAW is carrying out its shadowy activities at Afghan soil without the knowledge of the NDS, the key intelligence and security service of Kabul, they added.

The NDS acting chief is expected to bring some evidence to clear the charges against his agency of waging a proxy war with the connivance of RAW against Pakistan, they said.

TTP chief Mullah Fazalullah had reportedly been the guest of some influential persons in the security and political establishment of Afghanistan, the sources said. The reports of organising meetings among various groups of the TTP by RAW with the assistance of NDS is also in the knowledge of the security establishment, the said.

But to pursue national security matters between two sovereign states sometimes some bitter pieces of information are to be swallowed to achieve some bigger goals, they added.

Some reports claimed the bilateral intelligence dialogue (between ISI and NDS) is being facilitated by the United States and China. However, security establishment circles did not confirm these reports.