Boston Globe
June 23, 2011
Pg. 4
Pakistan Army Questions 4 Officers About Extremist Ties
Inquiry expands after the arrest of senior official
By Munir Ahmed, Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Pakistani Army is questioning four more officers about suspected links with a banned extremist group that has called for the military to oust the country's government, an army spokesman said yesterday.
A day earlier, the army said it detained a senior officer, Brigadier Ali Khan, working at army headquarters, because of suspected links with the group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The four unnamed army majors who are being questioned have not been detained, said Major General Athar Abbas, the spokesman.
Western officials have long suspected some Pakistani military officials of having ties to Islamist militant groups, especially Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Those fears rose after American forces discovered and killed Osama bin Laden in an army town not far from Islamabad - although the United States has found no evidence senior Pakistani officials knew his location.
The Pakistan military has repeatedly denied that it supports extremist groups, and investigations into suspected militant sympathizers are usually conducted in secret.
The army's decision to acknowledge it is investigating officers over links to Hizb-ut-Tahrir could be an attempt to counter Western suspicions that it tolerates backers of militants within its ranks.
The family of the arrested brigadier has denied he has any ties with extremist groups and has demanded he be released. A brigadier is the equivalent of a one-star general.
Khan's lawyer, retired colonel Inam Rahim, claimed that his client was arrested for demanding that someone within the military be held accountable for the covert US Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden last month in the town of Abbottabad, which is not far from the capital.
The raid humiliated the Pakistani military, which did not know about it beforehand, and raised questions how bin Laden could have lived in Abbottabad for five years without authorities knowing.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is an Islamist organization that wants to reestablish the caliphate, the administrative structure that once governed a large swath of the Muslim world.
The group insists it has rejected violence, although observers say it promotes an intolerant mind-set that can ultimately lead some followers to embrace militancy.
Although the group is banned in some countries, including Pakistan and parts of Central Asia, it is active in Western countries such as the United States, where it finds protection under free speech and association laws.
Also yesterday, gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan Province, killing four people and wounding seven others, said senior police officer Hamid Shakeel.


