Pakistan had a new chief of its powerful military intelligence agency Monday after President Pervez Musharraf secretly reshuffled his army brass on the eve of US-led strikes against Afghanistan.
Lieutenant General Ehsanul Haq was appointed as chief of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency following the retirement of his predecessor, Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed.
"Mahmood Ahmed has been retired on his request and Ehsanul Haq has stepped in as new ISI chief," military spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.
The new top intelligence man in Pakistan is of the Pashtun ethnic minority. He previously served as corps commander in Peshawar, North West Frontier Province, and as director general of Military Intelligence.
Musharraf earlier promoted two other lieutenant generals to the upper echelons of the military establishment in a move widely seen as a message that it was time for Ahmed to go.
He appointed Lieutenant General Mohammad Aziz Khan as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and Lieutenant General Mohammad Yusuf as vice chief of Army Staff.
Both Khan and Yusuf have been promoted to the rank of full general.
General Musharraf, who is chief of Army Staff, was also at the helm of the CJCSC but stepped aside to make way for Khan.
Although Musharraf denied any hidden motives, observers said Ahmed's retirement represented a major change in Pakistan long-standing policy of support to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia.
"This is the signal we have been waiting for," one Western diplomat said.
The highly secretive ISI has been described as a "state within a state", not least for its operations in Afghanistan where it helped to found, train and supply the hardline Taliban from 1994.
Ahmed was in Washington on September 11 when hijacked passenger jets hit the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing some 5,500 people, and was immediately summoned to meet with top US officials.
The attacks have been blamed on Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who has been living under the wing of the Taliban.
The ISI chief was later sent on two missions to meet Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in the militia's southern stronghold of Kandahar but failed to convince him to hand over bin Laden.
Threats of massive US retaliation brought a sea-change in Pakistan's policy toward the Taliban, which seized Kabul in 1996 with ISI support and relied heavily on Islamabad's backing as it tried to wipe out internal resistance forces.
Musharraf has offered his unstinting support to the US-led war against terrorism and has severed the close alliance with the Taliban, although Pakistan remains the last country to keep diplomatic relations with the Islamic militia.
In the process he has had to face down vocal religious fundamentalist elements within Pakistani society and possibly also within the ranks of the army.
"This is a normal military activity," he said, referring to the promotions of Khan and Yusuf. He refused to discuss changes within the ISI. br>
"It has no relation with events that are taking place in Afghanistan. I was wearing too many hats."
"The changes had been contemplated for many months. I think that the changes in the military hierarchy were necessary."
There were other media reports that Lieutenant General Muzaffar Hussain Usmani, deputy chief of army staff, was also going to retire.
Musharraf this week gave himself an indefinite extension as chief of Army Staff. He had appointed himself president in June, some 18 months after seizing power in a bloodless coup in October 1999.
The US and British attacks in Afghanistan targeted Taliban airbases and the alleged training grounds of bin Laden. Bureau Report