Islamabad, Aug. 16 (PTI): Hamid Gul, who led Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, died yesterday of a brain haemorrhage. He was 78.

Gul was last night rushed to the Combined Military Hospital in Murree near Islamabad and was pronounced dead on arrival, his daughter Uzma Gul said today.

Gul, the ISI chief in 1987 and 1989, when the US-backed Afghan extremism against the then Soviet Union was in its last stages, continued working in the spy agency even after that.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condoled Gul's death. Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif also expressed condolences.

Gul was commissioned in the Pakistani army in 1958 in the Armoured Corps (19 Lancers). He was a tank commander at the Chawinda front during the 1965 war with India.

Between 1972 and 1976, he directly served under Gen. Zia-ul-Haq as a battalion commander. He was promoted to Brigadier in 1978 and rose to be the commander of the First Armoured Division, Multan, in 1980.