ISLAMABAD: Pakistani newspapers gave prominent coverage yesterday to a British media report that a retired general gunned down in Islamabad last month planned to blow the whistle on fellow generals’ dealings with the Taleban.
Jang, Pakistan’s biggest selling Urdu-language newspaper, ran a story on its front page headlined: “Gen. Alavi was against pacts with Taleban, Musharraf had sacked him.” The reports in Jang and other Pakistani dailies were based on a story published in Britain’s Sunday Times, and written by Carey Schofield.
Maj. Gen. Amir Faisal Alavi, a brother-in-law of Nobel prize-winning British novelist V.S. Naipaul, was shot dead along with his driver on the outskirts of the capital on Nov. 19.
Suspicion initially fell on Muslim militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taleban, but an investigation by police and intelligence agencies has yet to come up with hard evidence.
“The investigation is going on but so far there has been no progress. We could not identify the murderers or the motive,” said Sajid Kiyani, superintendent of police in Islamabad.
Schofield says Alavi, who had commanded the elite Special Services Group, gave her a copy of a letter he had sent to army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani in which he named two generals whose conspiracy resulted in his premature retirement more than two years ago.
Western and Pakistani analysts have long harbored suspicion that Pakistan has played a double game by supporting Taleban factions in the years since 2001, despite the heavy casualties suffered by its security forces fighting militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
A copy of the letter, dated July 21, 2008, with the names of the two generals blacked out, was reproduced on the Sunday Times website. In the letter, Alavi asked Kayani to open an inquiry into the reason for his retirement and disciplinary action against the generals who had plotted against him.
He also asked for a military decoration and a post-retirement job that he believed would help restore his honor.
The British journalist said Alavi gave her a copy of the letter four days before he was killed, and had asked her to publish it in the event of his death. She said Alavi expected to be killed as he had not received any response to his letter.
Alavi believed he had been forced out of the army because he had become openly critical of deals between Pakistani generals and the Taleban. There is no mention of support for the Taleban in the letter, just a veiled reference that the purpose of the plot against him “by these general officers was to hide their own involvement in a matter they knew I was privy to.”
