ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Stung by U.S. allegations that elements in its premier spy agency colluded with Islamic militants in last month's bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan, Pakistan acknowledged Friday that there "probably" were Taliban sympathizers within the ranks of its powerful intelligence establishment.
The Pakistani government, which immediately and indignantly denied the reports of its spies' involvement in the bombing, reiterated that there was no evidence that members of its Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence had aided Taliban militants in the July 7 attack on the embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, which left about 60 people dead.
But by Friday evening, senior Pakistani officials were offering a more nuanced response to U.S. intelligence officials' allegations of ISI complicity, which were first reported Thursday by the New York Times.
"There is no proof of ISI involvement" in the attack in Kabul, said Pakistani Information Minister Sherry Rehman, who is close to Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani and accompanied him on an official visit to Washington this week.
But she added: "There are probably still individuals within the ISI who are ideologically sympathetic to the Taliban, and act on their own in ways that are not in convergence with the policies and interests of the government of Pakistan. . . . We need to identify these people and weed them out."
Earlier, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas called the report "unfounded, baseless and malicious." He said the ISI was a highly disciplined agency that had played a key role in combating militancy.
U.S. officials, however, allege that the ISI has financed, supported and possibly trained members of the Taliban-linked extremist network headed by Afghan tribal warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, and that his network was responsible for the Indian Embassy blast and other attacks.
The uneasy relationship between Pakistan's new government and the country's vastly influential intelligence establishment became an unwelcome focal point of Gillani's Washington visit, his first since taking office four months ago.
Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who traveled with Gillani, said President Bush had told the Pakistani leader that American intelligence agencies were reluctant to share sensitive information out of concern that the ISI was passing it on to militants.
