Pak Army to court martial Brig with links to Hizb-ut-Tahrir
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 01:50
From Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, Feb 11 (PTI) A Pakistani Army Brigadier, who was arrested for his alleged links with the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir, will be court martialled, a media report said today. The Pakistan Army has decided to conduct the court martial of Brig Ali Khan, whose arrest last year had sparked concerns about the presence of sympathisers for the extremist group in the Pakistani military. Khan, who was serving as director for rules and regulations at the army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, was detained on May 6 last year. Khan was denied promotion in the past because of his extremist leanings. The summary of evidence or formal charges against Khan had been finalised and his court martial is expected to begin soon, Geo News channel quoted its sources as saying. The Pakistan Army had confirmed in June last year that it was questioning four majors in connection with the detention of Khan. The current status of the majors is unknown. Shortly after the covert US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2 last year, the Hizb-ut-Tehrir distributed pamphlets in military cantonments that called on army officers to establish an Islamic caliphate. The extremist group has issued numerous appeals to soldiers to rise up against the military leadership and to work for severing Pakistan's ties to the US. Despite the ban on the group, its activists openly operate in cities across Pakistan. According to BBC Urdu, Khan angered the army's hierarchy by writing letters to generals, some of them his former colleagues, with suggestions on how to become "self-reliant" and "to purge the army of American influence". Khan reportedly told senior officers like army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that Pakistan's "unconditional" support to the US was causing resentment in the lower ranks.