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gajar posted on 1264984314|%A: %d %B, %Y|agohover
More and more Pakistan army officers are being identified with extremist beliefs, as well as with links to Taliban and other related organisations which is the greater worry inside Pakistan.
In the most recent instance, one Colonel Shahid Nazir and two colleagues, serving army and air force officers, were arrested in Balochistan and court-martialled in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). They were charged with passing on information to guide terrorist attacks on military establishments inside Pakistan.
The charges were serious. The three officers are members of Hizbul Tehrir, an extremist Islamist group. They were accused of passing on information to the Taliban and later, two civilians were arrested trying to attack the Shamsi air base in Balochistan.
Pakistan has been battling the steady ingress by Taliban sentiments among its officer corps, even though its been long a fact that recruitment for the Pakistan army and the extremist organisations happen from the same provinces, sometimes same villages, making the connections much deeper than otherwise appreciated.
The seriousness of this came to light when a group calling itself Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan actually protested against the court-martial of these officers in Kotli, PoK.
This was unusual, specially since the TTP, for the first time, set off explosions in PoK, raising worries about Taliban infestation in a province that has been relatively free of them. In fact, a TTP spokesperson there said they had set off the explosions as a mark of protest.
The reason why their trial for treason was moved to PoK from Balochistan on January 15 was that under local laws, the accused cannot appeal the decision in the appellate court. Only PoK residents are allowed to do so. This means the military court would be the final arbiter.
Security sources here said that many other army officers, held for links with the Taliban or al-Qaida, have been declared deserters and brought to Kotli cantonment. Remember, even David Headley, alias Daood Gilani, and Tahawwur Rana, caught in the US for planning the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, were also graduates of a Pakistani military school in Hasan Abdal.
Former CIA official and author Robert Baer was quoted as saying that the Pakistan army and ISI links to Taliban militants are so deep that it was impossible to root them out. It is too deep in the army. They can't root it out. The real question is, is this Taliban influence spreading to Punjab, Sindh and other parts of the country? That is the real worry, said Baer.
