US pressing Pak to bring ISI under civilian control India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Worried by the ever growing clout of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and its continued covert support to the banned terrorist organizations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the US is slowly pressing Islamabad to increase civilian control over the agency. With the Pakistan government deciding to convey its objections over the conditionality attached with the Kerry Lugar Bill, sources said, the US may agree to water down the clauses of the bill, but not before putting up a demand for a civilian head of the ISI. The News quoted sources privy to the issue as saying that the US authorities actually want to clip the wings of the ISI because they consider is a threat to their objectives against the nuclear programme. The newspaper also reported that the Pakistan Army has taken strong notice of the presence of private US security firm, DynCorp, inside the country. The Army high command is also planning to take action against those who have facilitated the US firm to acquire arms and establish its network in Pakistan. According to sources, the Pakistani military believes that DynCorp was secretly establishing its base in the country to break Pakistan's nuclear security.