Hamid Gul

Lieutenant General Hamid Gul (Urdū:حمید گل), is a retired Pakistani general famous for heading the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistani intelligence agency, after the Soviet-Afghan War, and for instigating the Kashmir insurgency in 1989 with the support of mujahideen that fought in the Soviet-Afghan war.

Hamid Gul served as the director general of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence during 1987-89, mainly in the time when Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was instrumental in the anti-Soviet support of the mujahideen in the Afghanistan War of 1979–89 [ [http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0802662.html Afghanistan War] "Infoplease.com", July 22, 2007 ] , a pivotal time during the Cold War, and in establishing the Taliban. He also was a vehement supporter of the Kashmir insurgency against India. [ [http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1698828,00.html Bhutto Conspiracy Theories Fill the Air] "Time Magazine", December 28, 2007]

Army career

Hamid Gul was born in Sargodha, Punjab, and steadily rose to be the DG Military Intelligence (DGMI) [Hamid Hussain, [http://www.viewsonnews.net/articles/South%20East%20Asia/Pakistan%20Army/undercover-chaos.html "Undercover Chaos – Role of Pakistani Armed Forces Intelligence Agencies in Domestic Arena"] "Defence Journal", December 2005] under General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq who then nominated him to be the ISI chief succeeding General Akhtar Abdur Rahman in March 1987. He was later replaced as the ISI commander by PM Benazir Bhutto in May 1989 and Gul was transferred as the commander, II Corps in Multan. In this capacity, Gul conducted the [http://www.pakdef.info/pids/paf/highmark2.html Zarb-e-Momin military exercise] in November-December 1989, the biggest Pakistani Armed Forces show of muscle since 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

General Asif Nawaz upon taking the reins of Pakistan Army in August 1991, had Gul transferred as the DG Heavy Industries Taxila. A menial job compared to Gul's statute, Gul refused to take the assignment, an act for which he was retired from the army. [Ayaz Amir, [http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/20030523.htm "Another myth of independence"] "Dawn", 23 May, 2003]

Career as ISI Chief

Execution of failed Jalalabad operation

During his time as the DG ISI and the period when Afghanistan was under the control of DRA, former General Hamid Gul was blamed for planning and executing the operation to capture Jalalabad from the Soviet-supported Afghan Army in the spring of 1989. This switch to conventional warfare was seen as a mistake by some mujahideen leaders who considered that the mujahideen did not have the capacity to capture a major city. They advocated guerrilla warfare and evetually bringing down the communist regime. But the Pakistan Army was intent on installing a fundamentalist-dominated government in Afghanistan, with Jalalabad as their provisional capital, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf as Prime Minister, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as Foreign Minister.

Organization of IJI against PPP

During his tenure as ISI chief in 1988, General Gul successfully gathered right-wing politicians and helped them create Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, a religio-political conservative coalition against the left-leaning liberal Pakistan Peoples Party. He has recently acknowledged this fact in various interviews and for this he was harshly rebuked in one of editorials of a major Pakistani newspaper, which asked the general to apologize first to the PPP for having done the sordid deed and after that, apologizing for lack of wits because the IJI could not maintain its two-thirds majority for long. [ [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008