Defense Update

Lieutenant General Asim Munir was appointed the new Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. He will take over the post from Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar, who retired from the post of the ISI chief on 1 October.

In September, the Pakistan Army had approved the promotion of Munir and five other major generals to the rank of Lieutenant Generals.

Munir was earlier the Director General of Military Intelligence. He was also the 2018 recipient of the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, which is Pakistan's second-highest civilian award that is given to both civilians and military officers for "highest degree of service to the State and for services to international diplomacy". The new ISI chief has also served as the commander of the Force Command Northern Areas.

The appointment of a new ISI chief is of relevance to India as Pakistan's spy agency is believed to run intelligence operations in the country. Just two days ago, on 8 October, an employee at the BrahMos Aerospace unit in Maharashtra's Nagpur was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squads on suspicion of spying for the ISI and leaking technical secrets to Pakistan.

On Wednesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations of Pakistan, the media wing of the Pakistani military , on its website also announced the appointments of Lieutenant General Azhar Saleh Abbasi as the Chief of Logistics Staff at the General Headquarters, Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki as the Commander of the Mangla Corps, Lieutenant General Shaheen Mazher as the Commander of the Peshawar Corps, Lieutenant General Abdul Aziz as the Military Secretary at the General Headquarters, Lieutenant General Muhammad Adnan as the Vice-Chief of General Staff and Lieutenant General Waseem Ashraf as the Inspector General Arms.