Bhutto.
This conspiracy had surfaced after Benazir Bhutto’s decision to sack the then ISI Chief Lt. General Hameed Gul and appoint a retired general Shamsur Rehman Kallu in his place had not pleased the then incumbent Army Chief Aslam Beg.
The Pakistan Army had also averted a coup attempt against Benazir Bhutto’s second regime in 1995.This secretive coup plot was hatched by renegade military officers and was aimed at overthrowing Benazir’s hard-earned government.
The plot was foiled after intelligence agencies had tipped off the Pakistan Army in this context.
Acting on the tip-off from the then Major General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak (the then Director General of Military Intelligence), the then Chief of General Staff Lt. General Jehangir Karamat had thwarted the coup bid by arresting 36 army officers and 20 civilians in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The main accused in this failed coup attempt were Major General Zahirul Islam Abbasi (the then Director General of Infantry Corps at Rawalpindi), Brigadier Mustansir Billa and Qari Saifullah.
The arrested officials had later claimed during the course of investigation that they had plans to assassinate Premier Benazir Bhutto, Army Chief Abdul Waheed Kakar, senior cabinet ministers and the military top brass in order to bring about a corruption-free government in Pakistan.
While Qari Saifullah had managed to duck a trial by becoming an “approver,” Brigadier Billa was given a jail term of 14 years and Major General Abbasi was handed down a seven-year imprisonment. However, based on good conduct during his prison term, General Abbasi was given an early release from prison by General Pervez Musharraf in October 1999.
General Abbasi died in 2009.
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