Pakistan’s ISI: Militants, not India, are the greatest threat to national security

Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, has concluded that India is no longer the primary threat to the country’s security. Displacing New Delhi for the title are Islamist militias operating in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province:

A recent internal assessment of security by the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s powerful military spy agency, determined that for the first time in 63 years it expects a majority of threats to come from Islamist militants, according to a senior ISI officer.

The assessment, a regular review of national security, allocates a two-thirds likelihood of a major threat to the state coming from militants rather than from India or elsewhere. It is the first time since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947 that India hasn’t been viewed as the top threat.

In the words of Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, the report is nothing short of "earth-shattering." To be clear, the ISI’s findings aren’t yet supported among members of the Pakistani military, or in the higher reaches of government. But keep your eye on this.