Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency during the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and who supported Islamic militants, has died of a brain haemorrhage, family members have said. He was 79.
His daughter, Uzma Gul, told AP on Sunday that her father died late on Saturday night at the hill resort of Murree near the capital, Islamabad.
Born in 1936, Gul served in the army and fought in two wars against India. He always advocated that nuclear-armed Pakistan should confront its atomic-armed neighbour India.
As the chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from 1987 to 1989, he helped the CIA funnel weapons and money to jihadis fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He later broke with the US and loudly supported Islamic militants, including al-Qaida’s then leader, Osama bin Laden.
“[Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the sad demise of Lt.Gen.(retd.) Hamid Gul,” the ruling party’s media office said on Twitter. “The prime minister prayed eternal peace for the departed soul and said that may God bless the deceased.”
PM Nawaz Sharif has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the sad demise of Lt.Gen.(retd.) Hamid Gul. The Prime Minister prayed(1/1)
— PML(N) [Official] (@pmln_org) August 15, 2015
Legislator Arif Alvi called the former spy chief “a great man”.
The tributes will anger Afghanistan and India, who saw Gul as Pakistan’s most senior and vocal proponent of militancy in their territory.
Gul worked closely with US and Saudi officials to strengthen Afghan fighters against the Soviet military when he headed the ISI. Some of those fighters later joined the Taliban insurgency.
Towards the end of his posting, officials began diverting men and guns from the Afghan war towards budding militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, founded in 1990 as a separatist movement in Indian Kashmir.
The disputed Himalayan region is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has sparked two of the three wars fought between the nuclear-armed neighbours since they began separate nations in 1947.
After Gul retired, he frequently went on television to defend the Taliban and Kashmiri militants and blame a Jewish conspiracy for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
