Earlier today I wrote a post concerning one Danish Imam accepting “one-third” of the responsiblity of the violent protests that have occured in the aftermath to the Danish cartoons of Mohammed.  In the post I discussed how it is unreasonable to think that some of the more violent protests were not led by those pretending to be religious scholars and in some cases, Syria and Iran namely, the protests were almost assuredly allowed by the government in the nation the protests occured.

ADNKI reports some people in Pakistan see a similar government cooperation, but not at the hands of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf but rather at the hands of Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) who is believed to harbour a great deal of sympathy towards the radical Islamic ideology.  As I have written about numerous times, it was the ISI which chose to supply weapons and money to the Afghan mujahideen rather than the group later known as the Northern Alliance as England and the United States prefered.

The protests in Pakistan claimed no lives with the exception of a few more chickens to be roasted at KFC after protestors stormed Western-owned businesses to take their anger out at 12 stupid cartoons and three completely made up cartoons in which the Danish Imams spread.  I take that back.  The protests also took a beloved icon, Ronald McDonald, and paraded him around the streets throwing rocks at him and hitting him with shoes.  I wish they would have taken Grimmace.  There was always something about a big purple thing that scared me as a child.

Anyways, on to the reports ISI might have had a hand in the destruction.

The Urdu daily newspaper Khabrain, published in Lahore where the first deaths occured on Tuesday, described the protests as the worst in the history of the city. Dozens of public sector buildings – including the provincial assembly – as well as many private properties, commercial banks and offices were set on fire.

However, the paper noted that, in many instances, security forces simply ignored what was happening. It cited the example of a group of 40 youths who rampaged through the Hotel Embassy in the city. A mobile police unit was reported to have passed the site of the hotel three times but took no action to stop the destruction.

Reknowned journalist and television anchor Talat Hussain also made a similar observation about the protests in the capital Islamabad, where college students managed to cross into high-security diplomatic area in the capital and went on a rampage.

Talat asked how this was possible when, on any ordinary day, it is hard to access the high security diplomatic enclave. Yet a rally of 6000 students (which was massive by Islamabad standards) was allowed to come near the diplomatic area.

Other Pakistani newspapers and TV channels also raised the same points.

A senior leader of six-party religious alliance MMA and a member of parliament, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, told the media that the intelligence agencies were behind the violence.

Professor Khurshid Ahmed, former federal minister, economist and senior leader of Pakistan’s biggest Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami, also asked why the police were not at the scene in Islamabad for more than 30 minutes during the protests.

Note that leaders of Islamist movements were even puzzled as to why the protests took such a violent turn without the involvement of Pakistani authorities.  The latter group, Jamaat-i-Islami, helped lead the protest against the CIA bombing in Damadola therefore it is hardly a group which supports Musharraf nor anything deemed Western.

Without going in depth on the history of the ISI nor why the agency might be in cahoots with the protests, it should be noted there is a wide array of thought the agency has ties to Al Qaida through some intelligence operatives left over from days past.  India claims ISI has connections to Kashmir jihadis whom operate with Al Qaida and push the same sort of ideology.

These “spontaneous” protests in Pakistan could be backed by ISI, or an element within, simply because they feel Musharraf’s support in the GWOT is wrong. It is not only because some despise Musharraf but that they despise the West and Western culture.  There is a reason why the CIA bombing in Damadola was cloaked in secrecy from ISI, and that reason is probably because the CIA knows there is a sympathetic ear inside of ISI with respect to Al Qaida.  You can’t operate a secret operation with a mole inside.