By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
General Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's top intelligence agency who led it during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, has died of a brain hemorrhage on Saturday, his family said. He was 79.
According to his daughter Uzma, Gul died during a visit to a tourist destination near the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday night.
He led Pakistan’s ISI which, alongside the CIA, helped the domestic resistance movement during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan between 1987 and 1989.
Gul, who joined Pakistan’s army as a cadet in 1956 and retired in 1992, is considered the planner of famous siege of Jalalabad in 1989. Known as an expert on Afghan affairs, he had also been famous for having good relations with the Afghan Taliban.
Relations between the ISI and the CIA remained uneasy during his tenure as the spy agency's head; he had strongly opposed the direct access of U.S. officials to the Mujahedeen.
He was a personal friend of former Afghanistan premier and powerful guerilla commander Gulbadin Hikmatyar.
Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussein and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed their condolences over Gul’s death.
