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The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; Urdu: بین الخدماتی مخابرات, romanized: bayn khadamatiy mukhabarati) is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.
The ISI primarily consists of serving military officers drawn on secondment from the three service branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces: the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, and Pakistan Air Force, hence the name "Inter-Services"; the agency also recruits civilians. Since 1971, it has been formally headed by a serving three-star general of the Pakistan Army, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan on the recommendation of the Chief of Army Staff, who recommends three officers for the position. As of 2021, the ISI is currently headed by Nadeem Anjum, a lieutenant general. The ISI director-general reports directly to both the prime minister and the Chief of Army Staff.
The agency gained global recognition and fame in the 1980s when it backed the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War in the former Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Over the course of the conflict, the ISI worked in close coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom to run Operation Cyclone, a program to train and fund the mujahideen in Afghanistan with support from China, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim nations.
Following the dissolution of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, the ISI provided strategic support and intelligence to the Taliban against the Northern Alliance during the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s.
The ISI has strong links with jihadist groups, particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Its special warfare unit is the Covert Action Division.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees the insurgency in Kashmir by arming separatist militant groups.