Nobody’s saying it, but in asli cloak and dagger style, the real reason behind Agent Vinod’s shocking ban in Pakistan is supposed to be that nation’s dreaded premier intelligence agency – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

A reliable source from Karachi told Dailybhaskar.com that ban on the release of Saif Ali Khan’s film on Friday, was done in by Pakistan's Central Board of Film Censors, entirely on the orders of the ISI. Alarmed at the manner in which Agent Vinod shows the Pakistani Army’s involvement with the Taliban and Afghanistan, plus the assassination of the ISI chief, and its tacit encouragement of terrorism in India, the intelligence agency put its hob-nailed foot down.

While Saif, who co-produced the film, sought to play down the ban and made light of the Rs 1 crore loss Agent Vinod would suffer due to this restriction in Pakistan, the truth is the piracy market run by the Pakistani mafia and the fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s associates is all set to churn out pirated copies of the film on DVD, VCD and pen drive formats which will fetch them around 10 to 15 million (Rs 1.5 crore) in the first four days at local markets.