Pakistan's powerful spy agency ISI regards the US as its ‘worst enemy’ and Islamabad's claim that it is cooperating with Washington is a sham to extract billions of dollars in aid, jailed Pakistani doctor who helped CIA trace Osama bin Laden has said.
Shakeel Afridi, who spoke to Fox News from inside Peshawar Central Jail, also accused Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of supporting militancy including funding the Haqqani network, North Waziristan-based militant group that was last week designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US.
According to Afridi, Pakistan's ISI regards America as its ‘worst enemy’ even worse than India. ‘They said 'The Americans are our worst enemies, worse than the Indians,'’ said Afridi, in the interview which the news channel did not disclose how it managed to get.
‘I tried to argue that America was Pakistan's biggest supporter, billions and billions of dollars in aid, social and military assistance -but all they said was,'These are our worst enemies. You helped our enemies',’ he said.
The interview sparked a furore in the US with a key Senator Rand Paul threatening to hold up Senate business unless lawmakers address the case of Afridi.
The ISI, Afridi said, helps fund the Haqqani network.
‘It is now indisputable that militancy in Pakistan is supported by the ISI......Pakistan's fight against militancy is bogus. It's just to extract money from America,’ Afridi said. Fox news said Afridi gave unprecedented insight into activity inside the infamous basement prison where he was initially held beneath the ISI's headquarters at Apbara, in the capital Islamabad. ‘He described how during his own interrogation, in which he was tortured burns and shocks, ISI officers attacked him for assisting the US,’ the channel's report said.
‘Afridi helped pinpoint Laden's compound before the 2 May, 2011, raid in Abbottabad,’ the news channel said in its report,’ the report added.