The US is likely to withdraw the CIA station chief in the Pakistani capital after his cover was blown when Imran Khan’s party named him in a FIR registered over a recent drone strike, according to a media report on Friday.
The US is “increasingly worried” about the development and is considering recalling its top spy from Pakistan, The Express Tribune quoted its sources as saying.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party mentioned the name of the purported CIA station chief in a First Information Report registered over a US drone strike in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on November 21. The party rules the province.
The drone strike in Hangu district killed six persons, including three top commanders of the Haqqani terror network that has carried out a series of attacks on US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
As part of the understanding between the US and Pakistan, the CIA station chief works undercover. It could not independently be confirmed that the person named in the FIR was the CIA’s top operative in Pakistan. Another CIA station chief’s identity was given away in 2010, when a Pakistani human rights lawyer spearheading a campaign against drone strikes filed a lawsuit that named the spy.