In a vindication of India's stand, US intelligence agencies have for the first time said they have evidence that Pakistan's ISI provided logistical support to militants involved in the deadly bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul last month.
The conclusion was based on intercepted
communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried the attack on July 7 that left nearly 60 people, including two Indian diplomats, dead, US intelligence officials said.
Top intelligence officials told leading US dailies that there was "significant" evidence suggesting that ISI members provided logistical support to the embassy bombers.
The government officials, the reports said, were guarded in describing the new evidence and would not say specifically what kind of assistance ISI officers provided to the militants.
They said the ISI officers had not been renegades, indicating that their actions might have been authorised by superiors.
Indian and Afghan officials had accused the ISI of orchestrating the attack within days but this is first time that the American intelligence agencies have indicated they have evidence of the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in the attack.
The finding has dramatically heightened US concerns about long-standing ties between Pakistan's ISI and the Taliban, unnamed officials told The Washington Post.
American officials, the New York Times said, believe that the embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose alliance with Al-Qaeda and its affiliates has allowed the terrorist network to rebuild in the tribal areas of Pakistan.