Pak brigadier arrested,
Islamabad:
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A brigadier serving at the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi has been taken into custody for alleged links with a banned militant group, the chief military spokesman said today.
Brigadier Ali Khan, who was detained recently, is being questioned by Army authorities, spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the media.
Khan's detention was first reported by BBC Urdu, which said the officer had been serving in the Regulation Directorate of the General Headquarters for two years and went missing one and a half months ago.
Abbas said the investigation into Khan's links with an outlawed militant group was underway.
He avoided giving details, saying it could affect the probe.
Khan allegedly had links with the banned Hizb-ut-Tehrir and was reportedly involved in a plot to attack the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, sources told PTI.
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A brigadier serving at the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi has been taken into custody for alleged links with a banned militant group, the chief military spokesman said today.
Brigadier Ali Khan, who was detained recently, is being questioned by Army authorities, spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the media.
Khan's detention was first reported by BBC Urdu, which said the officer had been serving in the Regulation Directorate of the General Headquarters for two years and went missing one and a half months ago.
Abbas said the investigation into Khan's links with an outlawed militant group was underway.
He avoided giving details, saying it could affect the probe.
Khan allegedly had links with the banned Hizb-ut-Tehrir and was reportedly involved in a plot to attack the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, sources told PTI.
indianexpress.com/news/serving-pak-army-brigadier-detained-for-suspected-ter
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Hizb ut-Tahrir has been critical of Pakistan's American allies and has called for an end to the U.S. military presence in the South Asian nation.
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A BBC Urdu-language report quoted a relative of Khan as saying that he did not return from work on the evening of May 6.
Since bin Laden was killed, Pakistan has been under increasing pressure from the United States to crack down on militant sanctuaries in its northwestern border areas with Afghanistan and cut all ties with extreme Islamist networks.
Relations between Pakistan and the United States have nosedived to their lowest point. The army was humiliated by the perceived violation of sovereignty and the discovery that the world's most-wanted man had been living under their noses.
Western officials have long accused Pakistan's military and its feared Inter-Services Intelligence agency of maintaining links to blacklisted Islamist militant groups to offset the power of arch-rival India.
Pakistan has denied those links and points out it has been fighting for years against homegrown Taliban, losing thousands of soldiers, and has arrested senior Al-Qaeda suspects since joining the US-led "war on terror" in late 2001.
Diplomats suggest there is increasing awareness within parts of the military that relations to extremist groups can be a strategic liability, given years of suicide attacks and bombings targeting the military at home.
But Hizb ut-Tahrir is on the margins of banned networks that are most active in Pakistan and has a presence in some other countries in the Middle East. It has been blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
According to its website, it is a political party whose objective is to resume the Islamic way of life by establishing an Islamic state that executes the systems of Islam and carries its call to the world.
Although the group does not outwardly advocate violence, it has been accused of links to violent extremist groups.
.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gCeRZDSbyGw6nC4bhrsCYTm19xRQ?docId=CNG.a41e69b9fe8
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Brig Ali, who is based at military headquarters, was held last month and his family told he would be home soon.
"Yes, that's correct that he is under detention and an investigation is in progress for his contacts with a proscribed organisation," Maj Gen Athar Abbas told BBC Urdu's Asif Farooqi.
'Brilliant' record
A senior military officer, who wished to remain unnamed, told our correspondent that senior officers were both surprised and "disturbed" when a secret report was presented to them about the "inappropriate" activities of the brigadier.
The officer is known to have a "brilliant" service record and comes from a family with three generations of military service.
Brig Ali's father was a junior commissioned officer, his younger brother is a colonel serving in the intelligence service. His son and son-in-law are both army captains.
A military source told our correspondent that Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Pakistan's army chief, had asked for a briefing about the brigadier and after being satisfied about the weight of the "evidence", ordered the arrest himself.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13853942
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