Clip ISI's wings: Al-Mojaddedi tells US

NEW DELHI: With the country seeing decades of internal strife, former Afghanistan president Sighatullah Al-Mojaddedi on Monday asked the US to rein in Pakistan's ISI and "save" the world from terrorism.
       
Terming ISI as a "government" within a government and "threat" to the entire world, Al-Mojaddedi, the present chairman of Afghanistan Senate, said Washington should seriously think of curbing the role of ISI or face consequences.
       
"It is their (US') duty to do so to break the nexus between the ISI and the terror groups or otherwise the whole world would be engulfed by terrorism," Al-Mojaddedi said here.
       
The Afghan senator was in India to attend a conference on anti-terrorism.
       
"ISI is supporting various terror groups and has become threat to the entire world and this needs to be checked," Al-Mojaddedi said.
       
Claiming that the roots of nearly 90 per cent of terror activities or groups across the world can be traced to Pakistan, Mojaddedi said the US should give special attention and intervene by using force to break the nexus between ISI and these numerous groups.
       
Pakistan has become a "breeding ground" for terrorists who are "exported" to other countries to continue with their subversive activities, Mojaddedi said.
       
"There are training camps in Afghanistan where terrorists from various countries are trained," he said, adding ISI "has become a government within the Pakistani government."
       
"I think the Pakistani government has lost control over ISI," said Mojaddedi, who was the first leader to call for a jihad in the face of Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the late 1970s.
       
Attributing the resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan along with increase in violence within the country to Pakistan, he said the ISI is directly helping the extremist groups within the country.
       
"ISI is the root cause of disturbance of peace in Afghanistan. Terrorists are given all facilities and training including in suicide bombing and are then helped to cross over to Afghanistan to spread terror," Mojaddedi, who had survived assassination attempts by Taliban, said, adding if the agency stops "interfering or supporting terrorism in Afghanistan, the country would be free of terror shadow".
       
Mojaddedi said the Afghanistan government and the country's people share a good relation with Pakistan but wondered why "ISI was trying to spoil it".
       
Mojaddedi said he has raised the issue of ISI support to Taliban and other terror groups with various leaders including US President George Bush but "a solution is yet to be found".
       
Noting that Islam does not permit killing of innocents, especially women and children, the Afghan leader said the "violence that is happening in the name of jihad is nothing but terrorism.
       
"When we waged a jihad against the Soviets who had occupied our land, not one Russian was killed outside our land. Islam does not give the right to kill innocents and especially women and children. It is 'haram' to do so for a Muslim," he said, adding terrorists cannot be Muslims or vice versa.