Washington: Holding Al Qaeda and Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud responsible for the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US said the nexus between local and international terrorists was a grave threat to the stability of Pakistan.

The agency also concluded that these elements were also behind the recent wave of suicide bombings and attacks in the country.

The CIA's findings were in consonance with Pakistan government's claim about the dastardly killing of the Pakistan People's Party leader.

A team from UK's Scotland Yard was currently in Islamabad to help in the murder probe. This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud.

"We have no reason to question that," CIA Director Michael V Hayden said in an interview to the Washington Post.

"What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what's going on there. You have got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active. It is clear that their intention is to continue to try to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists," he added.

However, Hayden declined to discuss the intelligence behind CIA's assessment. The relationship between Al-Qaeda and local insurgents has always been a matter of concern for the US and it helped members of the terrorist outfit to regroup and rebuild in the restive Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, Hayden explained.

Source : UNI