ISLAMABAD // 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 militants, has died of a brain haemorrhage, his family says. He was 79.
His daughter, Uzma Gul, said her father died late Saturday night in 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 ISI chief from 1987 to 1989, he helped the CIA funnel weapons and money to the Mujahideen fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
He later broke with the US and loudly supported Islamic militants, including Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
* Associated Press
