Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

Frontline Pakistan
were actually meant for a group of rebel army officers plotting an
‘Islamic revolution’ in the country with the help of some other Islamic
militant groups.
At the centre of the coup plot were Major-General Zaheerul Islam
Abbasi and Brigadier Mustansar Billah and a group of middle-ranking
army officers. The rebels, who had close ties with some Islamic militant
groups and hardline Muslim clerics, had conspired to eliminate the top
military and civilian leadership and establish an ‘Islamic dictatorship’ in
the country. They had planned to storm a corps commander meeting at
Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and take over the military
command. General Abbasi was to declare himself ‘Amirul Mominin’
(the supreme leader of the faithful) and turn Pakistan into a theocratic
state. One of the main accomplices in the plot was Saifullah Akhtar.
Major-General Abbasi, who was posted as Director Infantry at
GHQ, had a controversial record. As a Brigadier he was posted in
the late 1980s as Pakistan’s military attaché in Delhi from where he
was expelled on espionage charges. The bearded General, who was
known for his extremist religious views, was at the end of his career
after having been overlooked for promotion. Brigadier Billah, who
sported a long unruly beard, had more radical religious beliefs. He
was never considered professionally sound and was consigned to an
obscure post at GHQ. The conspirators were highly influenced by
Lt.-General Ghulam Mohammed Malik, a former commander of the
10 th corps in Rawalpindi who had retired just a few months earlier.
Although the General did not have any direct role in the coup plot,
most of the rebel officers idolized him because of his radical Islamic
views.
A military court handed down jail sentences to General Abbasi and
the other accused, but Akhtar was mysteriously freed and allowed
to join the Taliban forces then closing in on Kabul. Akhtar’s name
resurfaced in 2004 when he was arrested in Dubai in connection with
a plot to assassinate Musharraf.
There are differences between the various groups. Some, such as
LeT, are more focused on India (though they all share the Kashmiri
cause as a rallying point). Others, like HuM, are more involved in
Afghanistan: some have closer links with transnational jihadists;
others, such as JeM, are more concerned with purifying Pakistan itself.
They share a common culture and anti-western world-view. They
draw their footsoldiers from the ranks of the lower middle class, their
ideology from radical clerics and their direction from a nuclei of battle-