New Delhi, October 28
In a complicated scenario, a large number of Pakistani nationals are fighting in Afghanistan along with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, which is getting logistic and tactical support from the USA.

According to well-placed sources here, while the nexus between Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban is well-known, reports of Pakistani nationals fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Taliban have come from Pakhtia and Khost provinces of Afghanistan.

In an equally bizarre scenario, the ISI, which worked in close tandem with the Taliban till the September 11 developments took place, is now helping the USA and giving the Americans specific intelligence about the Taliban.

The most recent example of this was the killing of 34 hardcore terrorists of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, who were fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. This killing had taken place on a specific tip-off from the ISI.

Of those killed, twenty were Pakistani soldiers. Eleven of the Pakistanis have been identified as follows: Ustaad Mohammad Farooq — commander, Imran Ali, Shamsher, Abdullah Nizami (from Karachi), Mohammad Ishaq (from Char Sadda), Mohammad Harris, Mohammad Arshad (both from Rawalkot in PoK), Mohammad Javed (Dera Gazi Khan), Ustaad Talla (Gujranwala), Ustad Yasir (Punjab) and Abdullah (Gandao, Mohammad Agency, Fata).

However, the ISI is not giving all correct information to the USA. There is suspicion in some quarters that the ISI is cleverly mixing wrong intelligence with right information so as to discredit the Americans in the long run, particularly before the Islamic world.