Who killed General Amir Faisal Alvi? Was General Alvi about to expose the secret alliance between the ISI, Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba?

Who killed Gen Alvi?
By Amir Mir
Thursday, November 20, 2008 (The News)




LAHORE: The authorities investigating the murder of Maj-Gen (retd) Amir Faisal Alvi, former General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the elite Special Services Group (SSG), by two unidentified gunmen in Rawalpindi do not rule out the possibility of involvement of some pro-Taliban militants in the assassination.

Once considered close to former president Pervez Musharraf, Maj-Gen Faisal Alvi was the first General Officer Commanding of the elite Special Services Group, and had also commanded the elite group as a brigadier. The first Pakistani major-general to have captained the Armed Forces Skydiving Team (AFST), Alvi was forcibly retired from the Army on disciplinary grounds ‘for conduct unbecoming’ by Gen Musharraf in August 2005.

The authorities suspect the involvement of a sectarian organisation (Sipah-e-Sahaba/Lashkar-e-Jhangavi) linked to Taliban and the al-Qaeda in the murder, as Maj-Gen Alvi had been involved in several major military operations conducted by the SSG commandos in the restive Waziristan region.

The authorities believe the murder has symbolic significance as Alvi used to be a high-profile officer of the Special Services Group — an independent commando division of the Pakistan Army, which had carried out the high-profile Lal Masjid operation in Islamabad against the fanatic Ghazi brothers and their followers.

Although retired in 2005, Alvi was still considered a soft target by the militants wanting to get even with the SSG commandos, whether serving or retired. The SSG is the same elite unit of the Army to which Musharraf belonged, and which was specially trained by the US Special Forces for carrying out covert operations and counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in Pakistan, especially in the Pak-Afghan tribal belt.

Though Maj-Gen Faisal Alvi was not involved in the Lal Masjid operation, he had supervised “Operation Mountain Lion”, which was carried out by American and British troops in the Pak-Afghan tribal belt.

The operations on the Pakistani side of the border were carried out with the help of the Special Services Group commandos in a bid to track down fugitive al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. In one such military operation carried out in Angoor Adda area of Waziristan in October 2003, a special SSG unit led by Faisal Alvi had killed 12 suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda militants and arrested 14 others.

At a subsequent media briefing, Faisal Alvi had stated: “Our guys are trying to flush out the militants. We are having problems actually flushing them out, because they are putting on very strong resistance. Some of those arrested appeared to be from Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime. Most of the guys we have encountered so far are foreigners (hailing from) different nationalities. You see those guys sitting under the tree, those prisoners we have taken, they are all foreigners and we have four dead foreigners lying here. The dead and most of the prisoners appeared to be Arab nationals”.

“A large cache of arms and basic surveillance equipment was also seized from the rebel compounds,” Alvi, who was the commander of the operation, said while showing weapons to reporters and giving details.

“You see a machine gun, you see AK-47s, you see a rocket launcher, you see anti-tank mines, you see explosives, you see grenades. All have been recovered from one house. There is a great possibility that these people could have been involved in the attacks across the border on the coalition forces and have launched those attacks,” he had stated.

.........

The mystery of Maj-Gen Alavi’s murder

Our Special Correspondent (Dawn)
Monday, 15 Dec, 2008 | 09:13 AM PST |

Major-General Faisal Alavi had threatened to expose Pakistani generals who had made deals with Taliban militants. — File

LONDON: Major-General Faisal Alavi, the brother-in-law of V. S. Naipaul, the British novelist and Nobel laureate, was murdered last month after threatening to expose Pakistani army generals who had made deals with Taliban militants. James Arbuthnot, chairman of the defence select committee, and Lord Guthrie, former chief of the defence staff, were among those who expressed support this weekend for British help to be offered in the murder investigation.

Carey Schofield, author of a forthcoming book, Inside the Pakistan Army, has revealed in a report (UK may help find Pakistani general’s killers) in Sunday Times that Alavi, a former head of Pakistan’s special forces, whose sister Nadira is Lady Naipaul, named two generals in a letter to the head of the army. He warned that he would 'furnish all relevant proof.'

Link to the letter: http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/letters.pdf

The report carries a scanned copy of the confidential letter to Army Chief General Parvez Ashfaq Kayani with names of the generals crossed out with a black marker.
Schofield claims that aware that he was risking his life, 'Alavi gave a copy of the letter to me and asked me to publish it if he was killed. Soon afterwards he told me that he had received no reply.'

'It hasn’t worked,' he said. 'They’ll shoot me.'
Four days later, he was driving through Islamabad when his car was halted by another vehicle. At least two gunmen opened fire from either side, shooting him eight times. His driver was also killed.

This weekend, as demands grew for a full investigation into Alavi’s November 18 murder, Lady Naipaul described her brother as 'a soldier to his toes.' She said: 'He was an honourable man and the world was a better place when he was in it.'
It was in Talkingfish, his favourite Islamabad restaurant, that the general handed me his letter two months ago. 'Read this,' he said.

Alavi had been his usual flamboyant self until that moment, smoking half a dozen cigarettes as he rattled off jokes and gossip and fielded calls on two mobile phones.
Three years earlier this feted general, who was highly regarded by the SAS, had been mysteriously sacked as head of its Pakistani equivalent, the Special Services Group, for 'conduct unbecoming.' The letter, addressed to General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of the army staff, was a final attempt to have his honour restored.

Alavi believed he had been forced out because he was openly critical of deals that senior generals had done with the Taliban. He disparaged them for their failure to fight the war on terror wholeheartedly and for allowing Taliban forces based in Pakistan to operate with impunity against British and other Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Alavi, who had dual British and Pakistani nationality, named the generals he accused. He told Gen Kayani that the men had cooked up a 'mischievous and deceitful plot' to have him sacked because they knew he would expose them.

'The entire purpose of this plot by these general officers was to hide their own involvement in a matter they knew I was privy to,' he wrote. He wanted an inquiry, at which 'I will furnish all relevant proof/information, which is readily available with me.'

'I folded up the letter and handed it back to him. Don’t send it,' I said. He replied that he had known I would talk him out of it so he had sent it already. 'But', he added, 'I want you to keep this and publish it if anything happens to me.'
'I told him he was a fool to have sent the letter: it would force his enemies into a corner.' He said he had to act and could not leave it any longer: he wanted justice and his honour restored. 'And you know what? I [don’t] give a damn what they do to me now. They did their worst three years ago.'

Schofield writes: 'We agreed soon afterwards that it would be prudent for him to avoid mountain roads and driving late at night. He knew the letter might prove to be his death warrant.'

'Four days after I last saw him, I was in South Waziristan, a region bordering Afghanistan, to see a unit from the Punjab Regiment. It was early evening when I returned to divisional headquarters and switched on the television. It took me a moment to absorb the horror of the breaking news running across the screen: 'Retired Major-General Faisal Alavi and driver shot dead on way to work.''

The reports blamed militants, although the gunmen used 9mm pistols, a standard army issue, and the killings were far more clinical than a normal militant attack.
The scene at the army graveyard in Rawalpindi a few days after that was grim. Soldiers had come from all over the country to bury the general with military honours. Their grief was palpable. Wreaths were laid on behalf of Gen Kayani and most of the country’s military leadership.

Friends and family members were taken aback to be told by serving and retired officers alike that 'this was not the militants; this was the army.' A great many people believed the general had been murdered to shut him up.

'I first met Alavi in April 2005 at the Pakistan special forces’ mountain home at Cherat, in the North West Frontier Province, while working on a book about the Pakistani army. He told me he had been born British in Kenya, and that his older brother had fought against the Mau Mau. His affection for Britain was touching and his patriotism striking.'

'In August 2005, he was visiting Hereford, the home of the SAS, keen to revive the SSG’s relationship with British special forces and deeply unhappy about the way some elements of Pakistan’s army were behaving.'

'He told me how one general had done an astonishing deal with Baitullah Mehsud, the 35-year-old Taliban leader, now seen by many analysts as an even greater terrorist threat than Osama bin Laden.'

Mehsud, the main suspect in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto late last year, is also believed to have been behind a plot to bomb transport networks in several European countries, including Britain, which came to light earlier this year when 14 alleged conspirators were arrested in Barcelona.

Yet, according to Alavi, a senior Pakistani general came to an arrangement with Mehsud 'whereby – in return for a large sum of money – Mehsud’s 3,000 armed fighters would not attack the army.'

The two senior generals named in Alavi’s letter to Gen Kayani were in effect complicit in giving the militants free rein in return for refraining from attacks on the Pakistani army, he said. At Hereford, Alavi was brutally frank about the situation, said the commanding officer of the SAS at that time.

.......

UK may help find Pakistani general’s killers
Carey Schofield

From The Sunday Times
December 14, 2008

The brother-in-law of VS Naipaul, the British novelist and Nobel laureate, was murdered last month after threatening to expose Pakistani army generals who had made deals with Taliban militants.

Major-General Faisal Alavi, a former head of Pakistan’s special forces, whose sister Nadira is Lady Naipaul, named two generals in a letter to the head of the army. He warned that he would “furnish all relevant proof”.

Aware that he was risking his life, he gave a copy to me and asked me to publish it if he was killed. Soon afterwards he told me that he had received no reply.

“It hasn’t worked,” he said. “They’ll shoot me.”

Four days later, he was driving through Islamabad when his car was halted by another vehicle. At least two gunmen opened fire from either side, shooting him eight times. His driver was also killed.

This weekend, as demands grew for a full investigation into Alavi’s murder on November 18, Lady Naipaul described her brother as “a soldier to his toes”. She said: “He was an honourable man and the world was a better place when he was in it.”

It was in Talkingfish, his favourite Islamabad restaurant, that the general handed me his letter two months ago. “Read this,” he said.

Alavi had been his usual flamboyant self until that moment, smoking half a dozen cigarettes as he rattled off jokes and gossip and fielded calls on two mobile phones.

Three years earlier this feted general, who was highly regarded by the SAS, had been mysteriously sacked as head of its Pakistani equivalent, the Special Services Group, for “conduct unbecoming”. The letter, addressed to General Ashfaq Kayani, the chief of army staff, was a final attempt to have his honour restored.

Alavi believed he had been forced out because he was openly critical of deals that senior generals had done with the Taliban. He disparaged them for their failure to fight the war on terror wholeheartedly and for allowing Taliban forces based in Pakistan to operate with impunity against British and other Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Alavi, who had dual British and Pakistani nationality, named the generals he accused. He told Kayani that the men had cooked up a “mischievous and deceitful plot” to have him sacked because they knew he would expose them.

“The entire purpose of this plot by these general officers was to hide their own involvement in a matter they knew I was privy to,” he wrote. He wanted an inquiry, at which “I will furnish all relevant proof/ information, which is readily available with me”.

I folded up the letter and handed it back to him. “Don’t send it,” I said. He replied that he had known I would talk him out of it so he had sent it already. “But”, he added, “I want you to keep this and publish it if anything happens to me.”

I told him he was a fool to have sent the letter: it would force his enemies into a corner. He said he had to act and could not leave it any longer: “I want justice. And I want my honour restored. And you know what? I [don’t] give a damn what they do to me now. They did their worst three years ago.”

We agreed soon afterwards that it would be prudent for him to avoid mountain roads and driving late at night. He knew the letter might prove to be his death warrant.

Four days after I last saw him, I was in South Waziristan, a region bordering Afghanistan, to see a unit from the Punjab Regiment. It was early evening when I returned to divisional headquarters and switched on the television. It took me a moment to absorb the horror of the breaking news running across the screen: “Retired Major General Faisal Alavi and driver shot dead on way to work.”

The reports blamed militants, although the gunmen used 9mm pistols, a standard army issue, and the killings were far more clinical than a normal militant attack.

The scene at the army graveyard in Rawalpindi a few days after that was grim. Soldiers had come from all over the country to bury the general with military honours. Their grief was palpable. Wreaths were laid on behalf of Kayani and most of the country’s military leadership.

Friends and family members were taken aback to be told by serving and retired officers alike that “this was not the militants; this was the army”. A great many people believed the general had been murdered to shut him up.

I first met Alavi in April 2005 at the Pakistan special forces’ mountain home at Cherat, in the North West Frontier Province, while working on a book about the Pakistani army.

He told me he had been born British in Kenya, and that his older brother had fought against the Mau Mau. His affection for Britain was touching and his patriotism striking.

In August 2005 he was visiting Hereford, the home of the SAS, keen to revive the SSG’s relationship with British special forces and deeply unhappy about the way some elements of Pakistan’s army were behaving.

He told me how one general had done an astonishing deal with Baitullah Mehsud, the 35-year-old Taliban leader, now seen by many analysts as an even greater terrorist threat than Osama Bin Laden.

Mehsud, the main suspect in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto late last year, is also believed to have been behind a plot to bomb transport networks in several European countries including Britain, which came to light earlier this year when 14 alleged conspirators were arrested in Barcelona.

Yet, according to Alavi, a senior Pakistani general came to an arrangement with Mehsud “whereby – in return for a large sum of money – Mehsud’s 3,000 armed fighters would not attack the army”.

The two senior generals named in Alavi’s letter to Kayani were in effect complicit in giving the militants free rein in return for refraining from attacks on the Pakistani army, he said. At Hereford, Alavi was brutally frank about the situation, said the commanding officer of the SAS at that time.

“Alavi was a straight-talking soldier and some pretty robust conversations took place in the mess,” he said. “He wanted kit, skills and training from the UK. But he was asked, pretty bluntly, why the Pakistani army should be given all this help if nothing came of it in terms of getting the Al-Qaeda leadership.”

Alavi’s response was typically candid, the SAS commander said: “He knew that Pakistan was not pulling its weight in the war on terror.”

It seemed to Alavi that, with the SAS on his side, he might win the battle, but he was about to lose everything. His enemies were weaving a Byzantine plot, using an affair with a divorced Pakistani woman to discredit him.

Challenged on the issue, Alavi made a remark considered disrespectful to General Pervez Musharraf, then the president. His enemies playeda recording of it to Musharraf and Alavi was instantly sacked.

His efforts to clear his name began with a request that he be awarded the Crescent of Excellence, a medal he would have been given had he not been dismissed. Only after this was denied did he write the letter that appears to many to have sealed his fate.

It was an action that the SAS chief understands: “Every soldier, in the moment before death, craves to be recognised. It seems reasonable to me that he staked everything on his honour. The idea that it is better to be dead than dishonoured does run deep in soldiers.”

Alavi’s loyalty to Musharraf never faltered. Until his dying day he wanted his old boss to understand that. He also trusted Kayani implicitly, believing him to be a straight and honourable officer.

If investigations eventually prove that Alavi was murdered at the behest of those he feared within the military, it may prove a fatal blow to the integrity of the army he loved.

Britain and the United States need to know where Pakistan stands. Will its army and intelligence agencies ever be dependable partners in the war against men such as Mehsud?

James Arbuthnot, chairman of the defence select committee, and Lord Guthrie, former chief of the defence staff, were among those who expressed support this weekend for British help to be offered in the murder investigation.

Inside the Pakistan Army by Carey Schofield will be published next year by Soap Box Books.

Some Comments:


Masud, Sheffield, UK says:

One of the thing western countries have to do is to stop giving military aid to pakistan. We need more humanitarian aid, education, infrastructure etc with string attached to it that never used by military. US has to stop doing business of arm dealing. Clear nexus between military and militants.


M N Beg, Lahore, Pakistan says:

I have no doubt in the truth of this story.The Sunday Times should also disclose the name of two generals. I also feel nothing will succeed against militants in Pakistan unless army is on fully board. President Zaradi is himself at the mercey of the Army. General Mushraf fooled the West for 8 long years.



Ghost of TK Says:
December 16th, 2008

Quaid-e-Azam’s grandson is a huge industrialist in India. His daughter left him and had the worst and most dysfunctional of relationships with him. All of the leadership that ‘made’ Pakistan were the elites that all you people whine about (nawabzadaz, secularist jinnah, Pir, Khan, Waderos, Bhuttos who were some hindu raja’s prime ministers blah blah blah)

Pakistan is a chooN-chooN ka murabba and so many things which are/were covered up for one reason or another. Why do you think they numb your brains with 10 years of “moot-Ala Pakistan” ??? So you stop thinking about these inconsistencies.

60 years of playing whores to world powers, fighting their wars, ripping the flesh off the bones of our motherland in the name of Islam. Destroying Pakistan in the name of Islam, “because it was made in the name of Islam”.

Usurpation of democratic rule from civilian masters to a clique of foreign boot lickers.

traitors amongst us?

Cultural, democratic and economic exploitation and ill-treatment of bengali’s,

traitors amongst us?

creation of shams & badr and rape of countless Bengalis by PAK Army

traitors amongst us?

Deliberate creation of madrassah system to fight the soviets starting in Ayub’s era (with the arab petrodollars)

traitors amongst us?

Dismemberment of Pakistan at the hands of those who are still at it.

traitors amongst us?

Hanging and near hangings of elected prime ministers.

traitors amongst us?

A militant Islamic takeover of our higher education institutions and their subsequent total paralysis.

traitors amongst us?

Being America’s condoms in fighting “their Jihads”

traitors amongst us?

Systemetic destruction and subversion of Educational institutions by our masters (the West)

traitors amongst us?

61 years of “Pay no attention to the wizard behind the curtain kids. And STFU!”

traitors amongst us?

It is too late to worry about traitors amongs us. The problem is the idiots amongst us. Fix the Idiot:Traitor ratio, and no “traitor” can touch your nation.

“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY IS US!”


Democrat2007 Says:
December 16th, 2008

@Ghost Of TK

“It is too late to worry about traitors amongs us. The problem is the idiots amongst us. Fix the Idiot:Traitor ratio, and no “traitor” can touch your nation.”

You can’t reform the idiots and traitors. What we really lack is an adequate supply of the third group, those who are neither traitors nor idiots. To create that group, we need to have an alternative vision instead of spending most of our time reacting to traitors and idiots.


FahadAfridi Says:
December 16th, 2008

The traitors among us are the ISI and army generals who make deals with taliban so they can kill more pakhtuns. Everyone knows Alavi was killed by the army.


dara Says:
December 16th, 2008

Are we sick? are we human?

what’s wrong with us, i don’t know and don’t want to know about Gen Alvi but question stands he was killed?
we are trying to justify killing?
no matter if it is Gen or common man in streets.

even bigger question is if most of people on this forum believe that that Gen was traitor then we need to bring a fundamental change to our army?
i personally think he was killed by either a terrorist group or may be personal reasons.

jihadies in our military and their sponsors in society have been committing suicide and bringing our country to an end.


FahadAfridi Says:
December 16th, 2008

Pakistani generals and ISI are playing double game with the world to collect money from everyone while both fighting and supporting the taliban jihadis. We can double cross India and even the US and probably get away with it, but one day we will double cross the wrong country and pay dearly for it.

If you ever back stab China, that will be the end of Pakistan. Unlike other countries, China doesn’t take BS from anyone.


aza Says:
December 16th, 2008

...I am the proud daughter of Maj General(R)Faisal Alavi ! i have my facts right ! do u ? A retired senior officer is killed in such a brutal way and the only thing u ppl can come up with is how he looked and how he had links with Britain ? yes he was born in Kenya because his parents were settled there but he came to Pakistan when he was 12 yrs old and he loved it ! and his passion for his country grew and he joined the forces to serve his country. how convenient is it to call a person traitorwithout knowing anything. he gave 35 yrs of his life to the forces ! and this is wat we can up with.. a thankless nation !

Rafi Says:
December 16th, 2008


What is the definition of traitor? ‘A person who collaborate with enemy to harm his own people’.

Blowing a wistle against wrong-doing of fellow army generals doesn’t fall into the catogary of traitor. It is rather an honourable gesture by telling the truth. Pakistan will get hurt by short sighted people (plenty in the country) rather than outside forces.

Mutazalzaluzzaman Tarar Says:
December 16th, 2008

I’m not a blind pro-army supporter and I am most certainly not a Musharraf supporter. But I think it is in very bad taste to insult a man who was murdered most brutally regardless of what he is accused of now. Additionally, his daughter is reading the board and all these incredibly hurtful and painful things said about her father. Can we at least tone down our conspiracy theories at least while she is here?

I think we should give Gen Alavi the benefit of the doubt. The case against him is hardly proven. And in fact, if what he wrote was true, then I am with him. Why are our retired jarnails aka mercenaries for hire doing deals with the Taliban? If Americans and the Brits are not our friends, then the Taliban are most certainly not our friends either.

Aza, I have my problems with the Pak army’s role over the years as an institution but my condolences are with you. We all love our country as did your father I am sure. Please don’t take what you read here to heart. Everyone on this board means well. It’s just that we’ve gotten very paranoid over the years. May God bless your father and our beloved country.


Ghost of TK says:

I’m a Proud Pakistani. My objective is to make the case for reform in the system of government and to advocate democratic values which have NO place for army/isi interference in our national politiacl life.

I understand ISI is our first line of defense, and for it to stay that way, it is the duty of all concerned citizens to convince anyone/everyone that they can that it is INDEED in the interest of Pakistan that our Military and our intelligence agencies focus on their jobs and not on power politics within the state.

False patriotism is also to be exposed. I speak harshly against THE ACTIONS of our pillars of state, but I do not condone their dissolution. They should do their job and I will be with them in the trenches fighting for Pakistan. But the moment they start doing sh!t like interfering in politics, It is my patriotic duty to stop this excess.

It is our duty as citizens to keep the various organs of state accountable and within their boundries. Mindless and false patriotism (support ISI in any case despite whatever it does) does not help Pakistan! Actually it hurts Pakistan and it has hurt Pakistan by stopping all constructive criticism for the betterment of our nation in the name of “patriotism”.

Would a sane and honourable person “support” their father even if they knew he was raping their sister? There are similar limits to “Patriotism” which has also been described as “the last refuge of the scoundrel.”