CA's Press Wing quashes rumours of ISI chief visiting Dhaka

The Chief Adviser's Press Wing has refuted reports emanating from India that the chief of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, is currently on a visit to Bangladesh.

Citing a defence ministry spokesman, the press wing led by Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, on its fact-check page on Facebook, said, "The Chief of ISI is not visiting Bangladesh. The news circulating in press and social media is false."

On Wednesday, a report in the Economic Times, the Indian financial daily, said ISI chief Lt Gen Asim Malik was visiting Dhaka with a view to creating an intelligence-sharing network between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It added that the visit marked the first time in decades that a Pakistani intelligence chief visited Dhaka.

A slew of Indian outlets proceeded to report the same, citing the ET story as the original source. That didn't stop them from adding their own layers to the story, in each case based entirely on anonymous sources.

Northeast News, an online portal, said the ISI delegation even flew to Rangpur to the area near what is known as 'the chicken neck', a particularly sensitive area for India's security concerns.

The Hindustan Times on the other hand, reported on Thursday evening that a four-member ISI delegation is visiting Bangladesh, sans chief Lt Gen Asim Malik.

It said the delegation is being led by Maj Gen Shahid Amir Afsar, the ISI’s director general of analysis, who previously served as Pakistan’s defence attache in Beijing.