Thread by @umaraqti

A failed Islamist military coup in Pakistan -- Thread:

In 1992 Commander FCNA - Maj Gen Zaheer Abbasi undertook an unauthorized and costly foray into Indian-held territory in which Pak Army lost ~ 40 men including 11 officers (incl a Brigadier).

Gen Abbasi was removed from his command & given a non-operational desk role at GHQ. He'd ve been fired had it not been for the reported intervention of Gen Javed then DG-ISI (Gen Javed was appointed by NS on the recommendation of Brig (R) Imtiaz (involved in midnight Jackal)).

By 1995, Gen Zaheer along with Brigadier Mustansar Billa, Col Minhas and Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI) commander Qari Saifullah planned to kill top Pak military leadership including then COAS Gen Kakar and civilian leadership PM Benazir Bhutto and President Leghari.

The plan named "Operation Khilafat" was to take over the reins of government and declare Pakistan a theocratic state and implement Shariah Law. But before 96 hours of the execution of the coup, Military Intelligence and ISI intervened and arrested ~ 40 army men and 20 civilians.

Gen Zaheer and co-conspirator had already written the "Address to the Nation" in which he appealed to all Muslims to unite under the "Islamic Revolution" that had taken place and would declare there would be no borders within the world of Islam..

..and that the borders btw Pak and Afghanistan would finish since we were one nation in Islam.

One of the planners of the coup Qari Saifullah became an approver, Gen Zaheer, Brigadier Mustansar Billa and others were court-martialed and sentenced to jail for 7, 14 and 2 years.

For Pakistan's first failed military coup by communists/far-left, check this thread.

https://twitter.com/umaraqti/status/1198379012386635777?s=20

References:
1) History of Pakistan Army Aviation
2) Pakistan's Drift into Extremism
3) Daughter of the East
4) Crossed Swords