Highest-ranking Pak Army officials killed since 9/11

The News 16 September 2013 LAHORE: Since the commencement of the US-led war on terror in September 2001, the Pakistan Army and its allied paramilitary forces like the Rangers have lost one serving lieutenant general and three major generals in the line of duty. Yesterday, Major General Sanaullah Khan was among the three military officials martyred in a blast near the porous Pak-Afghan border.On February 25, 2008, Pakistan Army’s top medic Lt Gen Mushtaq Baig was killed near the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, along with his driver and security guard, after a suicide attacker had conveniently ripped apart the vehicle he was travelling in. At least five other passers-by were also killed and 20 injured in this incident. However, General Baig remains the highest-ranking officer to be killed in Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks.On December 4, 2009, a terrorist attack on a Rawalpindi mosque during Friday prayers had left more than 40 people dead, including Major General Umer Bilal. The December 2009 Rawalpindi attack had targeted the Parade Lane Mosque located near the fortified Pakistan Army’s Headquarters, but five armed suicide attackers had perhaps found it easy to open fire from a close range on some 150 people offering prayers and to hurl grenades at them. Security forces had soon arrived on the scene to engage the terrorists. All five of the militants had either died by blowing themselves up or were killed while fighting with the soldiers inside the mosque. Apart from Major General Umer Bilal, various serving Army personnel, including a brigadier, two lieutenant colonels and two majors were among the unfortunate victims of this attack.Meanwhile, Deputy Director of National Logistic Cell, Taskeen Anjum, and Hashim Masood Aslam, the only son of Commander VI Corps, Lt Gen Masood Aslam, had also perished in this terrorist attack. And if this correspondent can recall well, former Chief of Army Staff, General Muhammad Yusaf Khan, was among the injured.After the attack, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed the responsibility for this incident in an email sent to the CNN. The e-mail of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had stated: “We once again mention that we are not against the innocent people and the state of Pakistan but against those officers and ministers who are American by hearts and minds and Pakistani just by faces.” Meanwhile, a retired Major General, Ameer Faisal Alavi, was gunned down on Islamabad Highway near the PWD Housing Society on November 19, 2008. He was the former head of the Pakistan Army’s elite Special Service Group (SSG) and had commanded this force during the first major assault on militants in Angoor Ada in South Waziristan in 2004. The Kenya-born Major General (R) Ameer Faisal Alavi was a special operations expert. It was later alleged that Ilyas Kashmiri, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir chapter of Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami, was behind the planned murder of Major General Alvi. On June 1, 2011, four officials of the Pakistan Rangers, including Punjab Director General Major General Muhammad Nawaz, his son Captain Asif Nawaz and a Lt Colonel Aamir Abbas, had died after their helicopter had crashed into the Indus River near Kot Sultan, District Layyah. The helicopter had met this accident just 25 minutes after taking-off from Dera Ghazi Khan. The then Layyah District Police Officer Muhammad Saleem had said the helicopter caught fire midair before crashing. The crash was linked to cloudy weather and dust storms. According to reports, the chopper was in contact with officials at the Multan Airport till 10:12am on June 1, 2011, after which it had lost contact with the control tower.But then, there have been a few celebrated survivors too! Just to recap, in 2000, Kamran Atif, an alleged member of Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami, had tried to assassinate the then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf. Atif was sentenced to death in 2006 by an Anti Terrorism Court. On December 14, 2003, General Pervez Musharraf had survived another assassination attempt when a powerful bomb had gone off just minutes after his highly-guarded convoy had crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi. Musharraf was apparently saved by a jamming device in his limousine that prevented the remote controlled explosives from blowing up the bridge as his convoy passed over it.On December 25, 2003, two suicide bombers had tried to assassinate Musharraf yet again in futility, but their car bombs had failed to kill him; 16 others had died instead. On June 10, 2004, gunmen had opened fire on a convoy carrying the then Karachi Corps Commander, Lt Gen Ahsan Saleem Hyat, leaving 11 people dead. The Corps Commander, who escaped unhurt in this attack, was later elevated as Vice Chief of Army Staff under General Pervez Musharraf. On July 6, 2007, President General Pervez Musharraf had escaped the fourth recorded attempt on his life when around 36 rounds were fired at his aircraft from a submachine gun in Rawalpindi.