Brig Ali Khan and four other officers were detained in May, 2011 for suspected links to Hizbut Tahrir.—File photo

KARACHI: Brig Ali Khan, who is facing a court martial for treason and mutiny, has been charged with masterminding a conspiracy to bomb the Army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) during a meeting of formation commanders, the BBC’s Urdu service said on Thursday.

The British Broadcasting Corporation quoted Major Sohail Akbar, a witness for the prosecution, as saying that the brigadier had persuaded a pilot of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to use his F-16 for bombing the GHQ.

Plans for assassinating the president and the prime minister were on the table, too, Major Akbar added.

US forces and a Blackwater office were also on the table, he added.

The officer said he was introduced to Brig Khan by some Hizbul Tahrir men in July 2010. “I know the Hizb members for the past seven years and have been meeting them after that session,” he conceded.

During the 2010 meeting, BBC quoted Major Akbar as recalling, the brigadier claimed that 400 men were enough to “seize power after eliminating the Army chief, the president and the prime minister”.

“I am ready to lead the putsch,” the brigadier asserted, according to Major Akbar.

Brig Khan once even claimed that the plot had the blessings of chief of the 111 Brigade and “a few other generals”, the prosecution witness said.

“I refused to become a part of the plot after realising that it will cause horrendous bloodshed,” the British network quoted Major Akbar as saying. “Hizbul Tahrir regards violence as Haram.”—Dawn monitor