ISLAMABAD: Four army majors are being questioned in Pakistan in connection with a brigadier who was detained over links to the banned Hizbut Tehrir group, an army spokesman said on Wednesday.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Reuters the men had been questioned but had not been detained.

“They are being questioned in relation to the brigadier case,” he said.

The arrest of the brigadier — the highest-ranking officer held in a decade — has raised fears about the growth in the military of the group which sees Pakistan as a powerful base for the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate.