Hamid Gul

Lieutenant General
Hamid Gul
HI(M) SI(M) SBt
حمید گل
13th Director General of the ISI
In office
29 March 1987 – 27 May 1989
Preceded byAkhtar Abdur Rahman
Succeeded byShamsur Rahman Kallu
Corps Commander II Corps
In office
May 1989 – January 1992
Director General Military Intelligence
In office
1983–1987
Personal details
Born
Hamid Gul

(1936-11-20)20 November 1936
Sargodha, Punjab, British India
(now in Punjab, Pakistan)
Died15 August 2015(2015-08-15) (aged 78)
Murree, Punjab, Pakistan
NationalityPakistani
RelativesAhmad Awais (brother-in-law)
Alma materGCU Lahore
PMA Kakul
OccupationRetired army officer and former spymaster
Military service
Allegiance Pakistan
Branch/service Pakistan Army
Years of service1956–1993
RankLieutenant General
Unit19th Lancers, Army Armoured Corps
CommandsCommander II Corps
DG Military Intelligence
DG ISI
Battles/warsIndo-Pakistani War of 1965
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Soviet–Afghan War
Afghan Civil War (1989-1992)
Awards Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military)
Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military)
Sitara-e-Basalat

Lieutenant General Hamid Gul HI(M) SI(M) SBt (Urdu: حمید گل‎; 20 November 1936 – 15 August 2015) was a Pakistani three-star general and defence analyst. Gul was notable for serving as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989. During his tenure, Gul played an instrumental role in directing ISI support to Afghan resistance groups against Soviet forces in return for funds and weapons from the US, during the Soviet–Afghan War, in co-operation with the CIA.[5]

In addition, Gul was widely credited for expanding covert support to Kashmiri freedom fighters.[6] against neighbouring rival India in the disputed Kashmir region from 1989,[7] Gul earned a reputation as a "Godfather" of Pakistani geostrategic policies.[8][9] For his role against India, he has been considered by A. S. Dulat, former director of RAW, as "the most dangerous and infamous ISI chief in Indian eyes."[10]

In 1988, Gul, with the support of General's Aslam Beg[11] and Asad Durrani,[12] played a key role in forming the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), a conservative political alliance created to prevent the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from winning the 1990 Pakistani general election. He appointed Nawaz Sharif as the leader of the IJI, who would later win the election with the help of the ISI.[12][13][14]

On 15 August 2015, he died after suffering a brain haemorrhage.[15][16]

  1. ^ Battle of Jalalabad - Operation Jalalabad - Pak-Afg war, 1989, 13 October 2021, retrieved 6 July 2023
  2. ^ Yousaf, Mohammad; Adkin, Mark. "Afghanistan – The bear trap – Defeat of a superpower". sovietsdefeatinafghanistan.com. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  3. ^ Nasir, Abbas (18 August 2015). "The legacy of Pakistan's loved and loathed Hamid Gul". Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 4 January 2017. His commitment to jihad – to an Islamic revolution transcending national boundaries, was such that he dreamed one day the "green Islamic flag" would flutter not just over Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also over territories represented by the (former Soviet Union) Central Asian republics. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, as the director-general of the Pakistan's intelligence organisation, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, an impatient Gul wanted to establish a government of the so-called Mujahideen on Afghan soil. He then ordered an assault using non-state actors on Jalalabad, the first major urban centre across the Khyber Pass from Pakistan, with the aim capturing it and declaring it as the seat of the new administration. This was the spring of 1989 and a furious prime minister, Benazir Bhutto – who was kept in the dark by ... Gul and ... Mirza Aslam Beg – demanded that Gul be removed from the ISI.
  4. ^ Wright, Lawrence (18 August 2015). "Postscript: Hamid Gul, 1936-2015". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  5. ^ Afghanistan War Infoplease.com, 22 July 2007
  6. ^ "Kashmiri youth remember freedom fighter". The Express Tribune. 7 May 2022.
  7. ^ "Bhutto Conspiracy Theories Fill the Air" Time, 28 December 2007
  8. ^ "Former ISI chief Hamid Gul passes away in Murree – The Express Tribune". 16 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Ex-Pakistan spy chief urges talks with Mullah Omar" Archived 11 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine CNN, 12 March 2010
  10. ^ "A joint venture of spooks", Business Recorder. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  11. ^ "Money arranged at behest of Ghulam Ishaq, Aslam Beg: Habib". 9 March 2012.
  12. ^ a b "Former ISI chief says army money used to influence 1990 Pakistan election". The Guardian. 9 March 2012.
  13. ^ "Hamid Gul accepts responsibility for creating IJI". Dawn (newspaper). 30 October 2012.
  14. ^ "Asghar vs Aslam". 20 January 2019.
  15. ^ "The legacy of Pakistan's loved and loathed Hamid Gul". Al Jazeera.
  16. ^ Masood, Salman (16 August 2015). "Hamid Gul, 78, Dies; Backed Militants in Leading Pakistan Spy Agency". The New York Times.