Islamabad: A Pakistan Army brigadier, currently facing court martial for alleged links with the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir, had conspired with an air force pilot to bomb the General Headquarters with a F-16 jet during a conference of top commanders.
Brig Ali Khan was arrested last year on suspicion of having contacts with the Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
He has been accused of trying to stage a rebellion against the government and planning an attack on the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.
His family has denied the charges. Major Suhail Akbar, a prosecution witness, said in his statement that Khan and some members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir had told him that an F-16 combat jet would be used to target the army`s headquarters during a conference of corps or formation commanders.
Akbar said in his written statement to a military court that a F-16 pilot at a military airbase near Rawalpindi was persuaded to carry out the attack.
Akbar further said Khan also had plans to target an "American-controlled airbase" in Pakistan and installations of the Blackwater security company with an F-16, BBC Urdu reported. Akbar admitted that he had been meeting Hizb-ut-Tahrir members for seven years. He claimed Khan was present at a meeting of Hizb-ut-Tahrir members in July 2010.
"I knew for the first time in the same meeting that the Hizb-ut-Tahrir members and Brigadier Ali want to topple the political government and dislodge the military leadership and to take over the country," Akbar said in his statement.
PTI