What is the Stinger missile?
The Stinger is a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile of US design and manufacture and is considered the most lethal of this category of missiles presently available. The CIA gave a large number of these missiles to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan for issue to the Afghan Mujahideen groups for use against Soviet aircraft in the 1980s. The ISI retained a large number of these missiles for itself and issued the rest mainly to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the Hizb-e-Islami of Gulbuddin Heckmatyar and the Arab mercenaries of Osama bin Laden. These missiles inflicted severe damage on the Soviet aircraft. After the Afghan war, the CIA wanted to buy back these missiles from the Mujahideen and sought the co-operation of the ISI, then headed by Lt.Gen.(Retd) Javed Nasir. The Mujahideen refused to sell them back. Angered over the lack of co-operation from the ISI in this matter, the Clinton Administration placed Pakistan in the so-called watch list of State-sponsors of Internationa
