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Islamabad, April 27(ANI): The publication of classified Guantanamo dossiers that were shown bracketing Pakistan’s premier spy agency- the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)- with al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and other international militant networks, has ‘put the cat among the pigeons’, an editorial in a Pakistani newspaper has said.

“Secret files and documents held in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and obtained by the Guardian and New York Times show the US authorities’ view of the Pakistani ISI in a poor light,” the Daily Times editorial said.

“These two prestigious newspapers have put the cat among the pigeons by publishing the US authorities’ assessment dating from 2007 that the ISI deserved to be ranked alongside such long-time enemies described as terrorist organisations as al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” it added.

The editorial noted that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were instructed to treat association with the ISI as a justification for detaining prisoners in the facility since ISI had been classified as a “terrorist support entity”.

The ISI joins the organisations amongst 32 groups on the list of “associated forces”, which have been defined as “militant forces and organisations with which al Qaeda or the Taliban has an established working, supportive, or beneficiary relationship for the achievement of common goals”.

“Although these revelations date from a US authorities’ assessment of four years ago, they shine the spotlight on, and may help explain, the current trust deficit between the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and the US, a deficit that has by now eroded even the close military-to-military ties between the two countries,” the editorial said.

While the ISI is maintaining a meaningful silence over the Guantanamo files, said the editorial, the spy agency and the military establishment to which it reports came in for a bit of stick from an unexpected source within the country.

“Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali came out all guns blazing on the floor of the house against the ISI and military establishment, accusing them of orchestrating the activities of “test-tube” politicians (a pointed reference to Imran Khan and his recent caravan march to Peshawar against the drone attacks),” it said.

“He went on to claim his party, the PML-N, had also been approached by these forces but had refused to go along with any agenda of destabilisation of the present dispensation or even any role for the military in politics,” it added.

The editorial pointed out that this diatribe acquires added significance and weight, as it comes from Chaudhry Nisar- a political worthy known to be close to the military establishment. (ANI)