Banned group wanted Pakistan coup to make world Islamic

Those questioning Brigadier Ali Khan and several majors of the Pakistan Army for their jehadi links believe the radicalised armymen had a violent agenda to overthrow the government and remove the current military leadership, for their pro-American stance, through a coup.

Investigations being conducted by the authorities following the arrest of over a dozen officers of Pakistan Army for their links with Hizbul Tehrir have revealed that the leadership of the banned group had actually marked Pakistan as a base from which it wanted to spread Islamic rule across the world.

The group recruits members from the urban, educated and professional segments of the society and is also known to have spread its influence in the military ranks in recent years. Hizbul Tehrir has managed to maintain its presence in Pakistan despite being banned following the July 7, 2007 London subway suicide bombings, conducted by four British nationals of the Pakistani origin who were indoctrinated by extremists belonging to militant groups like Al-Mohajiroun and Hizbul Tehrir.

The Pakistani intelligence sleuths who are responsible for monitoring the HuT activities believe that the group might be working in tandem with al Qaeda under the garb of pan-Islamism.

They reminded that 35 members of Hizbul Tehrir were arrested in June 2009 from a house in Islamabad which was being used to plan a coup plot to overthrow the government and replace it by Caliphate, as envisaged by the group’s founder Umar Bakri.

However, despite having been banned in Pakistan after all these developments, the HuT members can be seen at key mosques on Fridays in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, distributing controversial literature propagating the revival of the Caliphate.