All archives and posts have been transferred to the new location, which is: http://criticalppp.com
We encourage you to visit our new site. Please don't leave your comments here because this site is obsolete. You may also like to update your RSS feeds or Google Friend Connect (Follow the Blog) to the new location. Thank you.
While certain details of Hamid Mir's story (next) may need further investigation, a few conclusions can be drawn:
1. There is an unholy alliance between Pakistan Army (including ISI) and sectarian outfits such as Jaish-e-Muhammad (reincarnation of Sipah-e-Sahaba as a jihadi outfit; Mullah Masood Azhar is known for his friendship with Mullah Azam Tariq of Sipah-e-Sahaba).
2. This unholy alliance is supported and institutionalized at the top most level in Pakistan Army.
3. Notwithstanding the brutal tactics of the 'enemy', Pakistani commandos and their sectarian and jihadi mercenaries do not hesitate from slitting throats of their enemies and presenting them to Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, and get cash rewards in return.
4. In Hamid Mir's words (second last paragraph), "there is no doubt that Ilyas Kashmiri was actually a creation of the Pakistani establishment like Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of the banned LeT." That sums it all.
Abdul Nishapuri
How an ex-Army commando became a terrorist
Sunday, September 20, 2009 By Hamid Mir
ISLAMABAD: Once he was a blue-eyed boy of President General Pervez Musharraf. He got a cash award from the president for slitting the throat of an Indian Army officer in the year 2000 but after 9/11, he became a suspected terrorist.
This terrorist was Ilyas Kashmiri, reportedly killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan last week. US officials claimed that Ilyas Kashmiri was a senior al-Qaeda commander and his death was a huge loss for the militants fighting against the foreign forces in Afghanistan.
Very few people know that Ilyas Kashmiri was a former SSG commando of Pakistan Army. He was originally from Kotli area of Azad Kashmir. He was deputed by Pakistan Army to train the Afghan Mujahideen fighting against the Russian Army in mid-80s. He was an expert of mines supplied to Afghan Mujahideen by the US. He lost one eye during the Jihad against Russian invaders and later on he joined Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami of Maulvi Nabi Muhammadi.
Ilyas Kashmiri was based in Miramshah area of North Waziristan where he was working as an instructor at a training camp. After the withdrawal of Russian Army from Afghanistan, Ilyas Kashmiri was asked by Pakistani establishment to work with Kashmiri militants. He joined the Kashmir chapter of Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami in 1991. After a few years, he developed some differences with the head of HuJI Qari Saifullah Akhtar.
Ilyas Kashmiri created his own 313 Brigade in HuJI. He was once arrested by Indian Army from Poonch area of Indian held Kashmir along with Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial. He was imprisoned in different Indian jails for two years and finally he escaped from there after breaking the jail. His old friend Langrial is still imprisoned in India.
Ilyas Kashmiri became a legend after escaping from the Indian jail. It was 1998 when the Indian Army started incursions along the Line of Control and killed Pakistani civilians many times by crossing the border. Ilyas Kashmiri was given the task to attack the Indians from their back. He did it many times.
Indian Army killed 14 civilians on February 25, 2000 in Lonjot village of Nakial in Azad Kashmir. Indian commandos crossed the LoC, spent the whole night in a Pakistani village and left early morning. They slit the throats of three girls and took away their heads with them. They also kidnapped two local girls. The next morning, the heads of the kidnapped girls were thrown towards Pakistani soldiers by the Indian Army.
The very next day of this massacre, Ilyas Kashmiri conducted a guerilla operation against the Indian Army in Nakyal sector on the morning of February 26, 2000. He crossed the LoC with 25 fighters of the 313 Brigade. He surrounded a bunker of Indian Army and threw grenades inside. After one of his fighters Qudratullah lost his life, he was able to kidnap an injured officer of the Indian Army. That was not the end. He slit the throat of the kidnapped officer.
He came back to Pakistan with the head of the dead Indian Army officer in his bag and presented this head to top Army officials and later on to the then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, who gave him a cash award of rupees one lakh.
The pictures of Ilyas Kashmiri with the head of a dead Indian Army officer in his hands were published in some Pakistani newspapers and he became very important among the Kashmiri militants. Maulana Zahoor Ahmad Alvi of Jamia Muhammadia, Islamabad, issued a fatwa in support of slitting the throats of Indian Army officers. Those were the days when Corps Commander, Rawalpindi, Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmad, visited the training camp of Ilyas Kashmiri in Kotli and appreciated his frequent guerilla actions against the Indian Army.
His honeymoon with the Pakistan Army generals was over after the creation of Jaish-e-Muhammad. Gen Mehmood wanted Ilyas Kashmiri to join JeM and accept Maulana Masood Azhar as his leader but the one eyed militant refused to do so. The militants of JeM once attacked the training camp of Ilyas Kashmiri in Kotli but he survived that attack. His outfit was banned by Musharraf after 9/11. He was arrested after an attack on the life of Pervez Musharraf in December 2003. He was tortured during the interrogation.
The United Jihad Council led by Syed Salahuddin strongly protested the arrest of Ilyas Kashmiri and on the pressure of Kashmiri militants, Ilyas Kashmiri was released in February 2004. He was a shattered man after his release. He disassociated himself from the Kashmiri militants and remained silent for at least three years.
It was the Lal Masjid operation in July 2007, which totally changed Ilyas Kashmiri. He moved to North Waziristan where he spent many years as a Jihad instructor. This area was full of his friends and sympathisers. He reorganized his 313 Brigade and joined hands with the Taliban but he was never close to al-Qaeda leadership. He attracted many former Pakistan Army officers to join hands with him. The strength of 313 Brigade in North Waziristan was more than 3,000. Most of his fighters were hired from the Punjab, Sindh and Azad Kashmir.
It is alleged that he organised many terrorist attacks in different areas of Pakistan, including the assassination of Major General (retd) Faisal Alvi in Rawalpindi. Alvi was also from the SSG and he led the first-ever Army operation in North Waziristan in 2004.
Kashmiri planned attacks on Alvi on the demand of Taliban in North Waziristan. Sources close to his family have yet not confirmed his death in a US drone attack but there is no doubt that Ilyas Kashmiri was actually a creation of the Pakistani establishment like Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of the banned LeT.
The Pakistani establishment abandoned and arrested most of these militant leaders without realising that they had followers all over Pakistan and they could create problems for Pakistan anytime. The establishment is still without any policy about all those who were once declared “freedom fighters” and were honored by the top Army officials like Pervez Musharraf. (The News)
......
Also read:
Govt tells Turkistan not to fight TTP
TANK: Authorities in Tank on Saturday forced an anti-Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander to surrender his arms and “stop fighting the TTP” in South Waziristan, officials said.
“I have been asked to stop fighting the TTP and surrender my weapons, which I did,” Turkistan Bhittani, the pro-government Taliban leader, told Daily Times by phone.
Official sources said the move came after he had spoken against the government, adding that the decision had been taken at the highest military and civil levels.
Turkistan, along with 20 of his supporters, was stopped by security forces near Kor Qila, 20 kilometres west of Tank, and asked to surrender his weapons, sources said. staff report (Daily Times)
Pakistan reluctant to hit Taliban leaders: Patterson
* Islamabad’s refusal to act in support of US goals undermining efforts against Al Qaeda
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Despite growing US military losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan is not targeting the groups on its soil that threaten the American-led mission there, the US ambassador to Pakistan has said.
Eight years after Pakistan agreed to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Ambassador Anne Patterson told the McClatchy Interviewer, Pakistan had “different priorities” from the US. It was “certainly reluctant to take action” against the leaders of the Afghan insurgency, she said.
She said Pakistan’s refusal to act in support of American goals was undermining the US effort to deny Al Qaeda and other extremist groups a sanctuary in Afghanistan.
“Where we differ, of course, is the treatment of the groups who are attacking our troops in Afghanistan. And that comes down to Haqqani and Gul Bahadur and Nazir, to a lesser extent Hekmatyar, and yes, of course, there are differences there,” Patterson told the newspaper. “My own view is that the Haqqani group is the biggest threat [in Afghanistan]. The Quetta Shura, yes, is sort of a command and control. They move in and out of Afghanistan,” she told McClatchy.
Nevertheless, Patterson said that Pakistan had “taken more action against some of these groups than most people are aware of.” (Daily Times)
In the latest round, American drones have killed two important men in the hierarchy of Al Qaeda. On August 14, Uzbek commander Nizamuddin Zalalov, and leader of Harkatul Jihad Islami, Ilyas Kashmiri, were successfully targeted somewhere in North Waziristan. The first-named was one of about 5,000 Uzbeks that Al Qaeda has brought into Pakistan.
The second man is the head of an outfit of non-state actors that Pakistan allowed to operate in Indian-administered Kashmir. After he was grilled for organising the attack on General Pervez Musharraf in 2003 and then let off, he went to North Waziristan and linked up with the vast network of warriors built up by Al Qaeda.
Kashmiri’s death revives the story of Major Haroon Ashiq (Retd) who began his jihadi career after getting out of the army and worked for a time with Lashkar-e-Tayba as a weapons expert before linking up with Kashmiri in Waziristan. After his capture, the major has revealed that he kidnapped a film producer, Satish Anand, for ransom on the instructions of Kashmiri, and then killed Major General Faisal Alvi (Retd) in Islamabad on Kashmiri’s orders.
While the abduction of Anand in Karachi was meant to beef up the kitty of Al Qaeda, the murder of Alvi became more controversial. Alvi, a dual-nationality British Pakistani serving in the commando section of the army with distinction, was prematurely retired. He told the British newspaper Sunday Times in December 2008 that he feared that someone from within the military establishment would kill him. Major Ashiq was finally the man to do the job for Rs 150,000 given him by Kashmiri.
In August 2009, the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, stated on TV that “officers of the rank of major” in the intelligence agencies with links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda had been arrested “because they wanted to target army generals” (Daily Times)
Maj-Gen Amir Faisal Alavi’s daughter remembers him
Saturday, November 22, 2008 (The News)
By News Desk
WASHINGTON: The daughter of late SSG commando, Maj-Gen (retd) Amir Faisal Alavi, who is in the US, has sent a letter on her memories of her father. She writes: “I vaguely remember asking my dad when I was five, how old was your dad when he passed away, papa? I remember my dad’s surprised look and laughingly, he said, 61, why?, Ooo, I said, You have a long way to go. I was wrong, so wrong.You went much earlier, papa.
“Born a British national in Kenya, Alavi came to study at Abbottabad Public School, but later his love and zeal for the military prompted him to renounce his British nationality. He wrote to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, asking him to grant him Pakistani nationality so he could join the Army and that is exactly what happened, he got his wish. “My earliest memories are of my dad splendid in his uniform, no nonsense formidable soldier attitude and at the same time he was an easygoing person, very humble, compassionate, but very fearless. He just loved flirting with danger, it was almost as if he thrived on it. He had this amazing energy around him that’s hard to describe, just the word military would bring a sudden change in his behaviour, it would be hard to control his enthusiasm, the energy radiating from him, he drained life source from it.
“He had an amazing unending compassion for people and a heart so large I doubt it ever had walls. All you had to do was ask him and he would give it to you. He told me once, always look after the people below you because that is really what shows what kind of a person you are. He taught me not to judge people based on wealth, caste, their status, colour but judge them on their hearts. His magnanimity astounded me even at people who had hurt him badly. I never understood how he forgave people but he always said to me ‘Leave it to God’. “I still remember his enthusiasm while going on for a Wana operation and me as always complaining, ‘dad you are a general, honestly how many generals themselves go out in an operation?’ He said, ‘You fight from the top, the bottom will follow the top, and if I lead, my soldiers will follow.’
“I remember him putting a hand in his uniform and taking out a small medallion with Sura Yasin on it, saying what’s this?, while me and my sister continued to attach small medallions or Suras and prayers to his uniform. He would always say, ‘I am a soldier, I have no family. And that is what always scared me, my sister and mom to death.’ I remember whenever I was in distress or panic, he would gently admonish me, saying ‘Be brave, You are Faisal Alavi’s daughter, remember who you are,’ but I can be distressed now can’t I, papa, you are there no more, who do I turn to now? “I could write a whole book on my father but a part of me wants to keep those memories to myself because that’s all I have left of him. He is no more; all I have are his memories with me.
“I think it was unfair of fate to give me so little time with you, papa. You were my best friend, my saviour, my superman more than you were my dad and now you left me alone. Every time, I pick up my cell, my fingers automatically dial your number only to realise there is no papa anymore at the other end. “I think the way you went away was cruel, and the people who did it were cowards but knowing you, I can say that is certainly the way you would have wanted to go. I know your only regret is you did not have a weapon to shoot one or two, but papa, if you had one, those cowards would never have come near you. “I don’t think I ever told you this dad, even though it’s a bit late now, I just want you to know how very proud I am to be your daughter, papa. I was truly blessed to have a great soldier like you as a dad. I won’t cry I promise, because I am your daughter but how can I not be sad knowing I won’t hear you, meet you or hug you ever again. I will really miss you, papa, I did not only lose my father, I lost my best friend, my saviour, my superman.
“I promise you, papa I will fulfil every dream of yours. I will be strong, just don’t be mad at me for this moment of weakness, I lost you, let me have a moment of weakness, but I won’t go weak ever papa. I will take care of everything. I just want you to rest in peace papa, you worked a lot its time for you to rest. Amen.”
I LOVE YOU, PAPA
MEHVISH ZAHRA ALAVI
........
This is how General Alvi's daughters defended their great father on a Pakistani blog funded by PML-N and Jamaat Islami
aza Says: December 16th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
FYI Maj Gen(R) Faisal Alavi WAS NOT A DUAL NATIONAL! HE GAVE UP HIS BRITISH NATIONALITY TO JOIN PAKISTAN ARMY. HE LOVED HIS COUNTRY ! HE WAS PROUD TO BE A PAKISTANI AND A PATRIOTIC SOLDIER!PLEASE GET UR FACTS RIGHT BEFORE COMMENTING ON SOMEONE!
AND AS FAR AS HIS BROTHER IN LAW BEING A HINDU! HE BROKE ALL CONTACT WITH HIS SISTER WHEN HE GOT TO KNOW THAT SHE HAS MARRIED A HINDU!
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 !
it hasnt even been proved that he gave the letter to a british journalist !
dunt follow the media as if watever it says is the truth and use ur brains !
because in every profession there are jealousies..he was an outstanding officer and he got more importance than others because of his calibre and thats wat others didnt like. he was a target to a conspiracy.. nonetheless the main point is that my father loved pakistan and the army and thats a fact and i dunt need to prove that because everyone who knew him can vouch for that!
manidr Says: December 16th, 2008
Dont just start talking and criticizing about things you have no idea about . First of all my father renounced his Bristish citizenship he was not a dual national he gave it up to join Pak army .Secondly all you calling him names stop it . Cowards only talk from behind doors MY dad maybe dead we are not > Ask u we ll answer …. HOW dare you call my father a traitor ….EVen if you do you are no on to decide .. we all forgetin life we may not get justice but im waiting for the end the perect justice because GOD makes no mistakes .
Stop your abuses and talk like humans first.
we are his daughters but i assure you we are not weak or cowards like you . Talk about him we will answer you .
and stop hurling abuses . talk like humans first. There is no treason nothing . Go and meet someone who had met my father even once dont act like riff raffs blowing whistles on the street .
and some mr up there who said if your father had committed treason he sould be punished > What the heck are you talking abt?
All the letter said was his request for his medal of service that is all., my father never discussed official mattters with anyone .
im gen alavis elder daughter i will answer you.
Give me proof my father said that. The letter published doenst state anything regarding northern province
Most of the people are not aware the people raising riots in northern areas are not i repeat they are not Pakistanis . THey have no ove for this country they are from other countries if they are so worried about the state of Islam as they claim to be why are they not fighting from their own countries why are they residingin our country creating problems with in and causing the whole world to point fingers at us. I strongly think no matter who ever it is rioting in Norther area i dont care wt religion he is form what is his caste wtever who ever is dusruppting peace in our country should be eliminated .
I dont think you have been following news closely over the years most of the militants donot belong to pakistan . Tell them go fight in their own country dont use our land for terrorism
As to the comments published in the news i mean people will say what everthey can say I have yet to see a murderer or a guilty man accept in open public he committed a crime . when confronted they all blame the other person.
All these allegations are totally baseless there is no domestic dispute, no sectarinism , and no other cause as these people claim . IF we still till today have not been able to find Benazirs killers or gen musthtaqs killers i have no expectations either
I told you before , we all await perfect justice
I remember 2 -3 years back complaining to my father the state of the military he just told me one thing Army is an institution dont blame an institution for anything ever its the man at the top who governs it. he makes it great or bad similarly , in answer to someone above who said who can be someone right and belong to the army mafia .
All overthe world people call Pakistan a terrorist state ….assuming you are from PAkistan , it means you are one too? isnt it
jsut because one or 2 people are bad doesnt mean the whole lot is bad
I told you before if you want to know about my father ask some one who knows him. Dont ask a gen dont ask a major , a col ask a normal soldier ask a jawan about him.
My father was never the regular general . His mentor was Brig T. M he taught me something he learned from him. LIfe is with your soldiers he taught me he told me how good a peron or human you are does not show from the amount of seniors that are happy with you it shows from the amount of normal jawans are happy with you. We never celebrated a single eid with our relatives . we celebrated them in the mountains and wilderness of cherat with th jawans . Eid with the troops he always said. THere may be danger to us no doubt but my father was never scared and so are we. HE had only 2 daughters that is all.
The grief of my dads killing was overhsadowed by the countless love of people i saw on his funeral, the letters i received condoling.Even in our grief we wont let anyone of you malign our fathers name.
There is no one amongst you who would rise and be bold enoughh to speak knowing you would be killed yet you continuing asking us questions or throwing dirt on my fathers name. I wont stop you people you have your minds and your thinking but i grieve for my father who left another country to serve this nation only to recieve comments of traitor in the end
For the last time im telling you he renounced his citizenship when he joined the army .
No dont spare us dont show us mercy the people on this forum have already showed alot of mercy. A war was started now finish it.You people didnot think of anything when you were slinging dirt on my father. NOw dont back off . finish the fight you started.
WHo killed him? who killed him indeed? when you find the killers of benazir and gen mushtaq i will tell you.
I wont say a word about who killed him but i told you before i await perfect justice. EVen if you hang his killers today you cant bring my father back .
I forgive the people who killed him . In this life we may not get justice but i wait for perfect justice i wait for the day when no one like you is there to sling mud and when GOd decides. I just await to join my father that is all i do.
Dont go back on you words now because you discovered his daughters are on this forum. People did not think when they were slinging mud and dirt at him.
ALl you people see is british journalist …..damn thats a treason without a thought without a ponder you speak . I dont blame any of you. May GOd show you light is all i can say.
# manidr Says: December 16th, 2008 at 8:51 pm comment-top
Brigadier (r) Samson Simon Sharaf
It is the destiny of every professional soldier to lie in wait for a day that may never come and yet be prepared if it does even at the peril of his life. Soldiering for me and my friends like Alvi, spans those romantic expanses of military life through all its peaks and valleys, which none other than soldiers grasp; and always leading towards a horizon of ideals that no other profession can rival.
The honour of the country is paramount; that of the men one commands the next; and self, the last
It is only this profession that reaches the closest zeniths of ideals, as its brave soldiers are expected to sacrifice their today for the tomorrow of others; the ultimate destiny for a professional soldier whenever the need so arises.
Such are the rallying points to build courage when valour seems to fail; to regain faith when despair abounds; and to create hope when it is forlorn. It is the integration and internalising of this code that arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which was and will be, with me always
We belong to the breed of officers that volunteered for the Army after the tragedy of 1971. These 36 years have taught us to be proud as well as be unbending in honest failure. It opened vistas of true wisdom and meekness of strength. Our emotions were not ours alone but also shared by every individual of the armed forces. There was therefore always, a temperate will, a quality of imagination, vigour of the emotions, an appetite for adventure and the resolve to win back the lost honour.
The day I joined Pakistan Military Academy, a group of seniors especially came to see me. Though I spoke lucid English, they were all amused to hear me speak urdu in typical Lahori dialect. A just for fun ragging was followed by a visit to the cafeteria, where we chanced to talk of our linkages with Pakistanis in Kenya, my sister being one. I was impressed the way he talked of Pakistan and the army. It was later I learnt that he had renounced his British moorings only to join the army.
Alvi loved to flirt with danger. In boxing he took on Talat, a cadet twice his weight and danced around him. In assault course, he set a record and jumped obstacles so reminiscent of the safari land he came from. He ran like a true Kenyan marathon runner and would always lead in the grueling nine miles run
In 1973, we did our adventure parachuting course together. We were instructors together in School of Infantry and Tactics and did our Staff course in Quetta in 1985 in the same batch. That’s when we both got our second daughters.
We had frequent contacts in 1999-2000 when he commanded the SSG and I was in Military Operations. Then again when he was a Major General, we worked together on the Heliborne Rapid Reaction Force.
After our retirements, we usually brushed shoulders at Tai Pan Restaurant of PC Rawalpindi. Despite the unceremonious exit, he had not lost his bubbling demeanor and confidence. He was just the same.
To me he remains a living memory of a young teenager shouting ‘four men left door’ as we prepared to jump from the 34 feet tower. He was so full of life, vigor and energy
the above article was written by a juinor of his comment-bottom # manidr Says: December 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm comment-top
this is an article written by my father at the killing of his favorite officer lt col haroon
A tribute to Lt Col Haroon ul Islam
Maj Gen Amir Faisal (R)
The untimely and very unfortunate death of Lt Col Haroon ul Islam, a very fine and motivated Special Services Group officer, has driven me to write a little tribute to this young and energetic officer of the Special Service Group of the Pakistan Army who was loved by all and sundry. The day he embraced “shahadat” at the hands of these misguided and ignorant fanatics, I received a telephone call from my daughters in the USA at 4.00 am in the morning. Answering the call a little annoyingly, being a little groggy as I was fast asleep, I asked them whether they realized what the time was in Pakistan. “Papa, haven’t you heard the news, Uncle Terra, (as they affectionately and be musingly used to call him) has been killed in the Lal Masjid operation!” They were visibly perturbed at the news. This made me jump up from my bed as I sought further details from them. They had been surfing the net in Maryland, USA, when they bumped into this news. It was daytime in the USA.
I told them that I knew he was there as I had talked to him the first day that he had arrived in Islamabad and I had wished him the very best, having full confidence in his capabilities and boldness as he had served under me when I commanded the Special Services Group as Commander Special Services Group and later on when I came back again to the Special Services Group as the first GOC SSG, I did my best to get him back into the SSG as the Commanding Officer of Zarar Anti Terrorist Unit, whose command had now been upgraded to that of a Lieutenant Colonels’ from that of a Major and which he had commanded earlier during my first tenure as a Major. My efforts eventually bore fruit and he did come back but was posted back in a late time frame and by that time, I had been retired and we did not get to serve together again.
I felt his loss at his not being there when the SSG was tasked to move to Waziristan to rescue the two Chinese hostages who had been kidnapped from the Gomal Dam by Abdullah Mahsuds’ terrorist cronies. The previous company commander had been posted out and Zarar Company now having been re-designated as Zarar Anti – terrorist Unit awaited its first Lieutenant Colonel and, obviously, for me there was no better choice than Haroon ul Islam whose name I passed to the Military Secretary’s Branch, which, to my utter dismay, took its time in posting him back and hence, he was not available for this operation. The unit thus moved for the operation without a commander and to cater for that I sent Lieutenant Colonel Waseem Ayub, also a good officer the Headquarters Special Services to command the unit for this operation as all the young Captains in the unit were very new in it and lacked the requisite experience. Zarar did well as expected, killing all five kidnappers and rescuing one of the two Chinese, taken hostage. The other Chinese, very unfortunately, came in the crossfire and died of his wounds. It was my firm belief and it still is till today that had Lieutenant Colonel Haroon been around, we would have managed to rescue the second Chinese too. I reiterated this belief of mine to the Military Secretary when I saw him the next time, only to get in return, a sheepish smile.
He need not have been there when his troops were laying that breaching charge against the Lal Masjid walls but true to his nature of always leading from then front, he was there. As the SSG had been doing this with stealth for the last few days, it appeared that the terrorists inside were alert this time and as they withdrew after laying the charges and to explode them, a burst of fire erupted in the dark out of which two bullets hit the gallant Haroon, one in the leg and the other below the neck. The one below the neck proved fatal. Major Tariq who was also hit in the pelvis and the other few men picked up Haroon and withdrew his body to safety by returning fire in the dark in the direction from where the fire had come. This warriors’ time was ended as per destined. He had already done a lot since his arrival at the spot just a few days back. He had personally sited all his snipers who took in one volley a heavy toll of the terrorists. The terrorists never showed their heads again knowing that they were now dealing with some real professionals. His men if they move in now to clear the terrorists will move in with a vengeance. The terrorists will stand no chance against his highly trained commandoes. It will take them only a few minutes if the approval is accorded.
One day he came to me and requested that he wanted to do the High Altitude High/Low Opening freefall parachutist course at the Parachute Training School in Peshawar. This was a course which was both dangerous initially and equally thrilling and I knew that every SSG officer wanted to do this course for the challenge. “No way,” I said, “your outfit has nothing to do with sky diving. You ought to concentrate on your primary job which is hostage rescue and anti terrorist duties.” I enjoyed the way he kept pestering me for the course and also sent his good friend the Officer Commanding the Parachute School to recommend him for the course. Finally, I submitted to his request and he delightfully went for the course. The Officer Commanding the Parachute School kept me informed about the course and it was news for me to learn that Haroon had topped the course and had completed his jumps but wanted to jump again the next day as there were some officers and men who still needed to complete his jumps. I accorded the permission on being impressed at his standing out so well in the course.
The next day I was in Tarbela witnessing some exercise when it was conveyed to me that there had been a parachuting accident at the Durrani drop zone in Peshawar and two officers had been seriously injured and one of them was Haroon ul Islam. I left for Peshawar immediately and went straight to the CMH. There I met the OC Parachute School who explained that during the last jump Haroons’ and another officers’ parachutes had collided in midair and Haroons’ leg had got entangled with the lines of the other parachute once they were at 800 feet above ground level. This had made the canopies of both the parachutes collapse into cigarette rolls and also gets into a spin, which in turn increased the descent speed of the parachutes over five times. Resultantly, both of them had come hurdling towards the ground and had hit it at a speed which virtually made dust rise which could be seen at a distance. “Will they survive?” I asked worryingly. The Officer Commanding Parachute Training School replied in the affirmative but told me they had bad injuries.
Haroon had broken his pelvis badly and the fall had badly rattled his bones. I saw him as he was brought back from the X-ray department. Meanwhile, my wife who also lived in Peshawar had also reached the hospital and was with me as he emerged in the Officers ward on a stretcher. Happy at seeing him alive, “I knew you’d do something on this course and you’ve done it”. I joked with him in a mean manner. He managed a smile till my wife asked him how he was feeling. “I am in great pain, Bhabi, “he whispered to my wife”. Okay, but don’t show it to anyone here, you are a brave commando and are known as such, my wife whispered back to him and then went straight to the doctor to tell him to administer him a pain killer. The next day Haroons wife was also there and then we saw his entire pelvis and leg plastered with his leg hauled up and a weight dangling on the other side. It was while he was on crutches that General Parvez Musharraf was appointed as the Colonel in Chief of the SSG and dinner at Cherat of all SSG serving and retired officers was followed by a musical evening and once the musical group, the Jupiters started playing the Bhangra song, the entire SSG as well as General Parvez Musharraf watched as they saw a person on crutches coming upfront in front of the stage to do the Bhangra. And then the entire SSG jumped in to do the Bhangra! That very evening, he rattled out in Punjabi, a poem dedicated to his city, Lahore. He was a very proud Lahori and this poem of this exalted the virtues of the city of Lahore.
Most of his sisters live abroad in Canada; I hear they are on the way to their family home to attend their brave and courageous brothers’ last rites. His elder brothers loved him too. He was their little brother that they were so proud of a professional commando officer, their kid brother! I think about the agony his wife and two little daughters would be in at this stage. The elder one was very attached to him. The younger one may be too young to ever remember her father, later. His family has lost him at the hand of those terrorists who profess to be better Muslims then the others, with their perverted intolerantly indoctrinated minds. What about his loving mother who doled over him, so much as he was her youngest son! Is it gratifying for her to learn that her courageous son, having survived Kargil, having survived such a dangerous parachute accident, having survived so many ordeals of commando life, finally met his end at the hands of so called Muslims or as they proclaim to be, better Muslims. We remember his mother shouting angrily at the SSG officers to put her son down as he could get injured when they were tossing him in the air on his wedding day, as per SSG tradition. Jolly good fellow as they call it in the Army and making one airborne as they call it in the SSG. For his mother, this was no tradition. She was simply shocked to see him being tossed real high in the air as he as well as his friends laughed. “Put my son down,” she ordered “You will hurt my Bubloo”, she said to the now startled SSG officers.
His men simply loved him for his straight forwardness, professional honesty and leadership qualities as the SSG calls for much higher leadership qualities as officers in the SSG have to lead from the front to be respected by their troops. To be really respected by the troops in the SSG is an acid test of leadership qualities. The SSG will remain proud of him, forever, I am sure
manidr Says: December 16th, 2008 at 8:56 pm comment-top
my father never had a beard , he was very secular. my father was a sunni my mother is a shia and we have never had a fight in our life on basis of sects
If you father was killed in a brutal manner and people were slingng mud at him i would like to see your reaction. In the angoor ada operation please check the bodies of foreign citizens were shown. HOW Have you been working to make pakistan strong tell me? if you think im a traitor cause im against religious fanaticism then maybe i am . GOd has not given authority to label any other person as a better worse or non muslim. I tols you before we all wait GOds judgement we are mere humans we are no one to decide who is muslim and who is not a muslim
.....
manidr Says: December 20th, 2008 at 7:23 am comment-top
Let me set the record straight for the last time . MY father was a british national but he was kenyan born and brought up in kenya.Kenya was a british colony .MY grandparents had migrated from Pakistan to Kenya. He came at the age of 12 to abbotabad public school to study and he remained here.He has absloutely no affiliation with britain. THe same way my sister was born in usa while my father was stationed here. IS she a us spy now?
I dont say things about my father because he was my father . No , we were raised to speak the truth if he was wrong i would be the first to say. He never favoured us because we were his children and similarly we dont favor anyone because we are related. None of you know my father , no one has met him. Without knowing some one dont make assumptions . I told you before go and ask a common soldier about him . DOnt sit and pass judgements as if you are a prophet recieving commandants from above .
......
# manidr Says: December 21st, 2008 at 1:37 am comment-top
@ lofty u asked me why he did not make it to a lt general …. My father had no one in pakistan army to favor him he came as a boy from another country . He made it to the rank of a maj general all due to his own hard work , no one helped him. Unfortunately even in the military they is politics at the higher level . That is something you have no control over . I dont think ranks are a measure of your patriotism . Not only was my father the first GOC ssg OF the Pakistan army he was the only general to do para jumps . I told you before , i donot defend my father because i am his daughter i defend him because i know him and you dont. If you knew my father you wont be here talking like this . I told you my name you didnot even tell your name . Lastly, i have a promise to someone i have to keep that is why i am silent . I only can tell you people some things are not what they seem .You only are seeing what someone wants people to see. I said before we are descendants of Hazrat Abbas ( A.S). His loyalty is still remembered and that is what my father always told me its in our blood to be loyal . I dont care what the media says . I know my father like i know myself . What we are today is because of my father . I dont need people who never met my father to tell me about him . I told you before if you doubt me go and ask someone who knew him . If someone is guilty of his murder, do you ever think they will accept it infront of the whole nation .No . never .All these allegations and absurd discussion online only makes my faith more firm someone wanted to save themselves very very badly so they killed him . I donot know who killed him but yes the weapons were 9 mm military weapons . and from what i have heard the atttackers came into the car to make sure he was dead .normal bullets couldnot kill my father he was shot 3 times in the brain too. They were numerous witnesses to the incident yet how come no one has come forward to identify the attackers .No one will . evryone is scared .Do you think if my father had evn though i am not sure that was his letter or not would have left the letter with some one in Pakistan they would have told people . Never . People are scared . I dont want to blame anyone at this moment . The only funny thing in this whole thing is how people view things they changed their focus from who killed him to how does a british have a letter . There is no mention of anthing high security in that letter . No taliban no nothing . As for the names of those 2 gens ….lol i am sorry the whole army knows …go and please ask them .
This is my last answer to you all . I wrote because you were maligning my father but then again its in the history of Muslims . They brought the grandshildren of the Prophet(M.P.B.U.H) onto the streets .They were labelled as traitors too , you know. IF people of their heritage can be labelled and mistreated , me and my family are mere normal followers of the same Prophet(M.P.U.H). we are nothing .They bore much more than us and that is the only thing that calms me. We are proud to call ourslevs Muslims yet i donot believe a muslim can call another names or talk against him without knowing even one fact. No. This is not islam. I donot need any court anything to prove my father is innocent. Everything in pakistan can be bought . That is the truth ,accept it or not . I hope on the day of judgement when GOD does justice i prove it to you. comment-bottom # manidr Says: December 21st, 2008 at 1:43 am comment-top
@lofty if my father was here he would have merely smiled at your allegations. I am sorry i am not like him that is why i wrote . BUt there is one thing he taught me and that is what i tend to follow . I leave it to GOD . i know HE wont disappoint me. because all the others have disappointed me so i await HIS justice . My father has a outstanding military career you can ask anyone that he passed out 1st in the commando course,he did a ranger course from the Usa. He waS THE only armour officer who became COMD SSG and then he lifted ssg to the level of a div. SSg was his life and his passion . i feel his loss but he died long before when they took his uniform. he always wanted to go in action and perhaps he got what he wanted. Please donot ask me more questions i have a promise to keep .
.....
........ Utmankhel1 Says: December 17th, 2008 at 1:22 am comment-top
aza and manidr,
May soul of the deceased rest in peace. I am extremely sorry for the loss of your father.
I cannot beleieve whats happening here, here we have two daughters of a slain person and we are abusing him, probing them and arguing with them for his sincerity and devotion to the country. Is this morality and patriotism. Are these the values that we say we are rich with ?
Adnan from Mansoora,
Grow up id**t. Look at your statements……….. you must have been celebrating the hanging of the dead body of Pir Samiullah by ISI in Swat, as had they done with Dr. Najib. Shame on you ……..
Read more...
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.'
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.”
Read more...
In the name of revenge Friday, November 21, 2008 It appears that General (r) Amir Faisal Alvi, a former head of the military Special Services Group (SSG), who was shot dead in a daring attack in Islamabad, may have been killed in revenge for his past involvement in operations against militants in the tribal areas. No other motive has been suggested for the assassination, carried out by killers, riding motorbikes and a jeep, who opened fire on the general's car and then fled. The ex-military man had been receiving threats from the Taliban for several months. His murder was obviously planned well in advance. It is thought he was made a target because he commanded the SSG group in a covert operation against militants, 'Operation Mountain Lion' carried out in Waziristan in 206, with US and British involvement. At least 12 militants had been killed by Alvi's unit, others arrested. Among them were a number of foreigners.
The Taliban, it seems, were eager to deliver a clear-cut message. The retired general was seen as a 'soft target'. His death, alongside that of his driver, is a reminder of the extremist hatred for the forces acting against them and of their ruthlessness. The game of revenge is obviously a dangerous one. It is not known if other targets are in sight. The killing could also set a pattern that 'copy cat' assassins emulate, to gun down, in a similar fashion, those involved in actions against militants at various times. The thought is a terrifying one. We already have, in our society, far too many strands of violence. An addition to them is obviously not a development to look forward to. Solutions to the situation are not easy to find. But the government must, with the military and other security outfits, consider a way to make the country a safer place; heads must be put together to find a way. Unless we can achieve this, the walk down the dangerous path that leads only to darkness will not be halted and this cannot augur well for any of us anywhere in the country. (The News)
....... Terrorists under pressure
Gunmen on a motorbike intercepted the private car of a former head of Special Services Group, Major General Ameer Faisal Alvi (Retd), and shot him and his driver dead on the outskirts of Islamabad on Wednesday. While a section of opinion attributes the killing of the general to personal enmity, the manner of attack shows it more likely to be the handiwork of an Al Qaeda-Taliban hit squad. The actual operation is more likely to be performed by any one of the sectarian groups that are affiliated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Recall the terrorist attack against the Surgeon General of Pakistan Army and the suicide-bombing of a commando unit that had taken part in the 2007 Lal Masjid operation in Islamabad. The modus operandi in this case is, however, closer to how the sectarian groups have been operating and targeting their respective leaders. The general had retired in 2006 and headed commando operations in South Waziristan during his tenure as the top SSG commander.
Determined military operations in Bajaur and Swat have brought the terrorists under pressure. For the first time the military is not only being supported by local tribes, there are local militias to back up action by the army. Mohmand Agency is the latest to challenge the Taliban. After the exit of President Pervez Musharraf from the scene, many developments have strengthened the position of Pakistan against the foreign elements located inside its territory and their local supporters.
An elected government has been able to get an agreement of disparate elements in parliament on how to tackle terrorism in the Tribal Areas. The backing to the military operations in the Tribal Areas comes from a parliament that wants dialogue with elements on the condition that they put down arms and talk. The consensus among the ulema on terrorism through suicide-bombing has also become a significant factor in Pakistan’s fight against terrorism. Within months, disagreement over terrorist attacks has changed into a firm opposition to the acts of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and more and more of the Taliban leaders are suing for peace. Therefore, the killing of a retired SSG officer is an act of desperation.
While achieving these successes, Pakistan remains firmly opposed to CIA attacks inside Pakistan. The reason for this opposition emanates from the experience of the Pakistan army in the Tribal Areas. The population in the affected area are Pakistanis mentally linked to a Pakistani sense of the nation. Attacks from across the Durand Line, while killing innocent people as collateral damage, affect the minds of this population and incline it to prepare for war instead of preparing for peace with Pakistan. Although some of the drone attacks have killed important Al Qaeda men — the latest being the one killed in Bannu — the net effect of these strikes is negative for Pakistan and tends to roll back its gradual progress towards pacification. The latest attack inside the settled area of the NWFP may in fact have inflicted an equal setback on Pakistan as on Al Qaeda.
Reconciliation is the only way out and that is what Pakistan is trying to achieve through military operations. The idea is not to kill people but to deploy power in such a manner that people vulnerable to the power of Al Qaeda turn away from it and resume their allegiance to Pakistan. That is why the stance taken by the Pak army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani includes finding a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan from where it is leaking into Pakistan. There are many NATO commanders who actually believe this to be the only way to go. Why is this considered important?
The final objective of Pakistan is to drive Al Qaeda out of the region, not to force it to fight to the end taking along a large Pakistani population. Before Al Qaeda is compelled to leave, it has to be isolated and separated from its local support base. Therefore Pakistan has to fight elements who benefit from the presence of Al Qaeda. This can be done only through re-establishing the writ of the state in the Tribal Areas. That is one reason why Pakistan concentrates more on the Taliban and not on Al Qaeda. The elimination of Al Qaeda and its extermination by blocking its exit may be an American objective but it lacks realism in the eyes of Pakistan. The organisation is amorphous and exists in many parts of the world. Pakistan doesn’t want more martyrs whose ghosts may haunt it in the future; it wants a return to normalcy with its people secured against violence.
A clear backing of the army operations from the civilian government has partly turned the battle against Al Qaeda and signs of this reversal are visible. Suicide-bombers are still being sent out but they are less and less effective. With time, as vigilance and pre-emptive action increases, these attacks will lose their appeal, certainly for those who do it partly for money. In the NWFP, political power is with people who fight the war for the survival of Pakhtun identity. The religious parties who helped entrench terrorism in the Tribal Arras are out of power and are now embroiled in scandals. This is the tipping point in Pakistan’s war against Al Qaeda. No slippage from this point should be allowed. (Daily Times)
Read more...
A tribute to Pakistani soliders fighting the terrorists of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Sipah-e-Sahaba
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto 1953-2007
Ghalib
The rose, with its redolent petals The water lily, with its robe of virgin white These have surely come to us in transmigration Of but a few of those Endowed with sublime beauty and grace. Some embrace death to sprout again But most, forever, in dust remain.
Links to Free Talkshows / Videos on Pakistan Politics
(Only) When love teaches the etiquette of self-knowledge, Are the Imperial Mysteries revealed to the slaves! Whether it be Attar or Rumi, Razi or Ghazali, Nothing comes to hand without supplication in the early dawn Do not lose hope in them, 0' wise guide! Even though the wayfarers are slow-moving, They are not without zeal (to reach the goal)! (Iqbal)
