By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan’s spy chief met his American counterpart in the U.S. to back on track the months of strained ties, but sources say that they have not succeeded to settle all differences.
Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, has concluded his crucial talks with the Central Intelligence Agency’s chief, Leon E. Panetta, in the CIA headquarters in Virginia.
The ISI-CIA relationship was hit for the first time in November when a US court issued summons to senior Inter-Services Intelligence officials including its chief Gen. Pasha, in response to a lawsuit filed by relatives of two American who died in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, accusing them of providing material support for the 26/11 attacks.
The 26-page lawsuit was filed before a New York Court against the ISI and top leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, who India considers as the mastermind of the attacks.
Then the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis in the city of Lahore in late January for killing two Pakistanis further strained the CIA and ISI ties, which is crucial against the insurgents.
Pakistan’s army officers were recently quoted as saying that the CIA-ISI joint operations have been halted after the arrest of Raymond Davis. Pakistan is angry at the clandestine operations by the CIA and the U.S., Special Forces in Pakistan and sources said that the ISI chief called for the number and activities of the American officials in Pakistan.
Pakistan ISI chief has reportedly asked the CIA chief to severely reduce their intelligence operations and drone strikes in Pakistan.
Pakistani officials have been quoted as saying that Pakistan wants more than three hundred CIA officials and contractors to leave Pakistan.
Islamabad was furious at a U.S. drone strike in mid-March in North Waziristan tribal region which had killed 44 tribesmen. Pakistan’s army chief, General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, in a rare reaction had condemned the strike. CIA, which controls operation of the drone aircraft, does not publicly comment on the operation. But Pakistan’s protest had forced the U.S. envoy for the region to express regret over the civilian losses.
Defence analysts say that CIA would be the looser in its tension with the ISI in the war against the insurgents and Afghanistan.