Pak defence minister said an agenda was ruthlessly pushed against the then Nawaz Sharif government
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif insists that former spy master Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed played a key role in removing Nawaz Sharif from premiership, local media reported.
Asif feigned ignorance about any investigation related to Gen Hameed’s brothers, as opposed to the claims made by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Samaa TV reported.
The defence minister said if party leader Maryam Nawaz has made any comments about the probes, she must have some information.
He said a lot of evidence has come into the public domain that a process had started during Nawaz Sharif’s prime ministership.
An agenda was ruthlessly pushed against the then Nawaz Sharif government, Samaa TV reported.
Asif also alleged that Lt Gen (retd) Hameed played a key role in removing Nawaz Sharif, and bringing PTI chief Imran Khan to power.
He added that Khan’s wishes were implemented by the former spy chief.
“We are talking about the accountability of a former soldier,” Asif stressed, Samaa TV reported.
He alleged that the 2018 elections were engineered, people were imprisoned and punished.
If Khan was honest, he remarked, the country would have gone on the path of development. He further said if Khan had admitted that the army was neutral, there would have been an improvement in country’s affairs.
He claimed Khan wanted Hameed to remain the chief of the premier intelligence agency, and wanted to appoint him the army chief, Samaa TV reported.
He taunted that PTI Chairman could make anyone his “political godfather” for personal gains.
Pakistan's Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed (Photo Credit Twitter via ANI)
The news of Lt Gen Hamid’s retirement comes a day after family sources said that Pakistan Army’s Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Azhar Abbas had sought early retirement as well.
Lt Gen Faiz Hameed — former intelligence chief and the current commander of Bahawalpur Corps — has decided to take early retirement, the media reported on Saturday.
The news of Lt Gen Hameed’s retirement comes a day after family sources said that Pakistan Army’s Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Azhar Abbas had sought early retirement as well.
The two army men were listed among the six army officers nominated by the General Headquarters for the army chief’s post, Geo News reported.
CGS Lt Gen Azhar Abbas decided to bid farewell, seeking early retirement, his brother confirmed to Geo News on Friday.
Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed
“I confirm that Lt Gen Azhar Abbas has sought earlier retirement to maintain his grace, honour and dignity as a decorated officer of Pakistan Army,” he said.
“Known for his professionalism, farsightedness and leadership, Lt Gen Azhar Abbas has decided to bid farewell, seeking early retirement — true to his personality,” a trusted family source said.
It may be noted that Lt Gen Hameed was the director-general of Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan while Imran Khan was prime minister.
Since ISIS-K specialises in mass casualty attacks, Kashmir is likely to witness attacks against security forces or installations, government offices and tourists. These attacks could be in the form of suicide bombings, bomb blasts in public places or transport, all intended to attract global attention. While ISIS-K would claim responsibility for such attacks, JeM and LeT would remain quiet and Pakistan and Taliban would be the first ones to condemn such attacks …. A special report by Dr Sakariya Kareem
The Taliban victory in Afghanistan has given Pakistan a new set of hard-core trained and experienced jihadis, newer weapons, strategy and offensive tactics in urban warfare, especially in holding against a military force. These assets will form part of Pakistan’s attempts to stoke militancy in Kashmir in the coming weeks, before the winter sets in.
One of the key elements of this new strategy would be to send cadres from JeM and LeT under the banner of Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a convenient way for Pakistan to claim deniability and avoid sanctions.
Since ISIS-K specialises in mass casualty attacks, Kashmir is likely to witness attacks against security forces or installations, government offices and tourists. These attacks could be in the form of suicide bombings, bomb blasts in public places or transport, all intended to attract global attention. While ISIS-K would claim responsibility for such attacks, JeM and LeT would remain quiet and Pakistan and Taliban would be the first ones to condemn such attacks.
In the past two years, thousands of LeT and JeM cadres were trained in heavy weapons, armed assaults, urban warfare and grenade attacks by Pak Army and sent to bolster the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. These cadres were trained in camps set up largely in Nangarhar, Kunar and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan. Nangarhar is the base of operations for the Haqqani Network as well as ISIS-K. In fact, most of the leadership of ISIS-K come either from the Haqqani Network or from LeT. The cadres are trained in JeM-run camps. JeM is ideologically close to the Taliban and has been a conduit for recruitment and training of Taliban cadres for several years now.
Now that the Taliban has taken over Kabul, their new assignment would be Kashmir. While ISIS-K has tenuous moorings in Kashmir, both LeT and JeM, especially the former, have been able to consolidate their support and influence in Kashmir in the past few years. LeT in particular have been able to build a base of local support which was evidenced in the recent past by incidents of eulogising killed terrorists as martyrs and locals resorting to violence to give the terrorists a proper burial.
The fact that LeT could foster foreign militants in areas like Hajin, Srinagar and Baramulla, before they were ousted or killed in military operations, showed the growing capability of the group to foster local support. These areas overlooked infantry positions and were not easy to be infiltrated. But the fact that the local people hid and supported terrorists, amidst heavy military presence, showed the strength of the support.
The rising number of local recruits–38 in 2013 to 88 in 2016–amply projected the increasing hold of militant groups in Kashmir. A demographic profile of 393 local militants killed in encounters in J&K, from January 2017 to June 2019 showed that nearly 43 per cent of them were recruited by the LeT and JeM, and another 45 percent joined Hizb-ul Mujahideen. LeT and JeM cadres would be reassigned to join ISIS-K in Kashmir to carry out spectacular attacks in Kashmir, quite similar to the Kabul airport attack.
Besides direct attacks, the ISIS-K would be more emboldened to take on the security forces in isolated mountainous areas as well as crowded urban centres. The LeT, JeM and ISIS-K cadres have gained considerable experience in this regard while ousting the Afghan forces. Although the Indian security forces are battle-hardened and more experienced than the Afghan forces, the terrorist cadres from Pakistan, with new tactical weapons and strategies learnt in Afghanistan in the past few months, will present a stronger challenge than in the past. Groups like LeT and JeM would fall back on their local support network to plan and attack new targets, and escape, waving the flag of ISIS-K.
