Has Pakistan stopped intelligence sharing with US after Osama bin Laden's death

LONDON: Pakistan's intelligence agencies are reportedly refusing to share details of suspects or plots with their American counterparts in protest at the covert US operation to kill Osama bin Laden, the media said here today.

Unlike in the past, when Pakistani agents were credited with helping identify targets for drone strikes and providing data to the CIA on plans being hatched in its lawless tribal areas, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agents are reported to be withholding "crucial operational details".

According to The Sunday Telegraph report, the ISI "has now broken off relations with the Central Intelligence Agency".

"They are furious. They handed over telephone intercepts in 2009 that were crucial in leading to bin Laden's courier - the key breakthrough in the hunt," an unnamed source was quoted as saying by the British daily.

"Then four months ago they were told there was nothing in it, it was what the Americans called a 'cold lead'. Since then they have been left out completely out of the loop," the source added.

The report quoted Lieutenant General Talat Masood, a military analyst, as saying that the stand-off would raise the threat to American cities and to NATO-led troops from plots hatched in Pakistan's tribal regions, headquarters of al-Qaeda linked militant groups.

"There are implications for both the US and international forces in Afghanistan, so the Americans will be very interested in getting the relationship back on track," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

According to a Pakistani media report from Islamabad, the Pakistani military has asked the US to finalise a formal agreement between CIA and ISI to carry forward their cooperation.

Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of the ISI who is facing fire over failure to locate bin Laden in Pakistan, has told the in-camera joint session of the Senate and National Assembly on Friday that he had stressed the need to formalise the relationship through an agreement during a recent meeting with CIA head Leon Panetta.

"It is not possible to carry forward the cooperation without a formal agreement duly approved by parliament," Pasha was quoted as saying by an unnamed lawmaker who spoke to Dawn newspaper.