The Beginning

     The beginning of the ISI's involvement in Afghanistan dates back to the late 1980's when the ISI helped the Taliban beat back the Soviet invaders. The ISI has been meddling in the affairs of Afghanistan since the 1970's for Afghanistan is seen as a replacement for East Pakistan; Pakistan has wanted to assert its influence over Afghanistan for many reasons.
     One of the main reasons that Pakistan is so eager to go into Afghanistan is that so they will have access to the resource rich area of Central Asia. According to Imtiaz Gul "the ISI has in fact been credited with creating and supporting the Taliban movement to realize the goal of securing strategic depth through a friends government in Afghanistan." In 1993, when Benazir Bhutto took power for a 2nd time, she appointed Naseerullah Babar as the home minister. Babar's main concern was opening up a highway from Pakistan to Central Asia and therefore needed the cooperation of the Taliban. Since they realized that eliminating the Taliban was impossible, they opted to join their side instead and help the rebuild Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban in charge so that they had a friend when the country was up and running again. So, the ISI was the main agent between the Taliban and the Pakistani government  but as time progressed the ISI took matters into their own hands and held meetings without the knowledge of the Pakistani government. From there they continued to supply the Taliban with weapons and planned on using them as a tool to attack enemies, primarily India. Yet, nothing ever truly goes to plan and the Taliban did their own thing and eventually 9/11 occurred and the Taliban offered Afghanistan as a safe haven to Osama and al-Qaeda.