It was reliably learnt that more than a dozen army officers are under arrest for their alleged links with a religious organization but the ISPR claimed there were only âthree to fourâ officers. The arrested army officers are being investigated to find whether they had any links with the group of Major General (Retd) Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, who, along with his trusted lieutenants, had attempted to dislodge Bhutto during her second tenure as prime minister.
Abbasi and his lieutenants were all members of the Tablighi Jamaat, and they did a fairly amatuer job of attempting a coup. One of the members of the plot was the leader of the Harkat ul Jihad Islami, who was released without charge in return for giving evidence against the army officers.
âI came to know about the arrested officers only through newspapers,â Major General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi told The Nation when contacted to confirm the information. Abbasi, who was later arrested and sentenced to jail for plotting a coup against the government, is now leading a political party after completing his jail term.
The Field Investigation Unit, or FIU, of Pakistan Army had arrested these officers recently but the matter was not made public. These officers, one of them Assistant Adjutant General and Quarter Master General Lt. Col. Khalid Abbasi, were arrested from Kohat. Major General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi and his group was also arrested from Kohat. |