Lahore: Controversial US private security
firm Blackwater, accused of carrying out secret operations in
Pakistan, has hired services of army officers and former
employees of intelligence agencies of this country for
"handsome" salaries, a retired ISI official has claimed.
Khalid Khwaja, who has been at the forefront in raising
the issue of "missing persons" or people detained without
charges by Pakistani security agencies, said that ex-
intelligence personnel hired by Blackwater had been asked to
"pick up people with alleged connections to Taliban or
al-Qaeda."
The Supreme Court "has directed the Pakistan government
to produce some 1,000 or so missing persons. The Pakistani
(intelligence) agencies have expressed inability to comply
with the order (on the ground that they do) not have knowledge
about the missing persons," he told PTI.
"I have written to the Prime Minister and the Interior
Minister to investigate the matter," said Khwaja, a retired
ISI official.
Blackwater, he claimed, has "hired the services of army
officers and former employees of intelligence agencies of
Pakistan for handsome salaries."
Former Pakistan army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Baig recently
alleged on a TV news channel that Blackwater was involved in
the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
PTI
