Hamid Gul, Pakistan’s Former Spy Chief, Dies at 78

Hamid Gul, Pakistan’s Former Spy Chief, Dies at 78

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Hamid Gul, an influential and contentious three-star general who served as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, from 1987 to 1989 and was deeply involved in the country’s policy toward neighboring Afghanistan when Soviet troops were withdrawing, has died at age 78.

General Gul never relinquished his public role, remaining closely tied to regional politics and supporting Islamic militancy against Western powers.

He died of a brain hemorrhage on Saturday evening in Murree, a picturesque hill station near Islamabad, the capital, according to Uzma Gul, his daughter.

General Gul was born in Sargodha in Punjab Province on Nov. 20, 1936, and was commissioned into the army in 1956. He fought in two wars against India.

A vocal and staunch critic of the United States, he often said proudly that he was hated by the Americans. During his tenure as ISI chief, he helped the United States and Saudi Arabia funnel money and weapons to Afghan fighters. But he later had a falling-out with the Americans and with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, who accused him of supporting the most hard-line fighters. He was replaced as head of the ISI in 1989 and retired from military service in 1992.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/world/asia/hamid-gul-pakistans-former-spy-chief-dies-at-78.html