A former high-ranking Pakistani intelligence official denied allegations Monday that he had given advice and support to a Pakistani militant group linked to the attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai late last month.Retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, former director of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, first surfaced in connection with the armed Islamist group Lashkar-i-Taiba over the weekend when a high-ranking Pakistani government official said India is seeking Gul's arrest along with several other Pakistanis. The Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, said Gul was not suspected of having a direct role in the Mumbai attacks but was considered a political patron of Lashkar.
The Pakistani official acknowledged that Gul is widely viewed as the "godfather" of a Pakistani policy that used guerrilla groups such as Lashkar as proxies in the conflict with India over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. But the official said Pakistan declined to hand over Gul because he has no role in setting the operational agenda of Lashkar or other organizations within Pakistan. Reached at his home in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Monday, Gul said he was aware of the allegations but dismissed them as an effort to "malign" him.