Islamabad:
Former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has admitted that the deadly Haqqani network was created by it and America's Central Intelligence Agency and claimed that the insurgent group's chief Jalaluddin Haqqani had "in fact been invited to the White House by President (Ronald) Reagan".
"Regarding the so-called Haqqani network, the DG ISI said that it had been created by both the CIA and ISI against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Jalaluddin Haqqani had in fact been invited to the White House by President Reagan," the Abbottabad Commission's leaked report which has revealed that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan for nine years before the US killed him, said.
Mr Pasha headed ISI at the time of Osama bin Laden's killing by US Navy SEALs in 2011.
He said though the fighting core of the Haqqani group in Afghanistan had been placed on the UN sanction list, its non- combat members had not been placed on the list.
"The ISI was in contact only with these non-sanctioned members of the Haqqani group who were responsible for administrative and other matters. The UK, Italy and some other countries were also in touch with them," the report published by Al Jazeera said.
The Haqqani network, the main fighting force against the NATO troops in Afghanistan, has in the past been referred to as the "veritable arm" of the ISI by US' former top military commander Mike Mullen.
The network is also blamed for the bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.