Pakistan army to appoint new intelligence chief

[fatman17]

Pakistan army to appoint new intelligence chief

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan army will appoint a new intelligence chief and the post will be announced later, said local media on Tuesday.

Major General Muhammad Asif will take place of Major General Mian Nadeem Ijaz Ahmed who has served as Director General of Military Intelligence of the Pakistan Army for more than three years and is proceeding for a command assignment, local media The News said, adding that the notification pertaining to the new posting is likely to be issued shortly.

Muhammad Asif belongs to infantry and was previously in Moscow as Pakistan's Defense Attache in Russia. He served in Russian capital for about two years and five months.

However, Pakistan's military spokesman Athar Abbas dismissed the report and said the posting is internal and would be announced when it happens.

 

[asaad-ul-islam]

Muhammad Asif belongs to infantry and was previously in Moscow as Pakistan's Defense Attache in Russia. He served in Russian capital for about two years and five months.

hmmm. i wonder, was he trained there?

 

[fatman17]

Senior Pakistani general assassinated

Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent - Islamabad

Key Points
The murder of a senior Pakistani general by Islamist extremists has fuelled post-election tensions in the country

Lieutenant General Mushtaq Ahmed Baig is the most senior Pakistani officer to have been killed by hardline Islamists since the country joined the US-led 'war on terror'


A senior Pakistani general was killed in a suicide attack in the army's main garrison city of Rawalpindi on 25 February, raising the prospect that Al-Qaeda-backed hardliners are becoming bolder and more determined to strike at senior military officials.

Lieutenant General Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, the military's surgeon general, was being driven home from his office at the military's general headquarters when a suicide bomber posing as a beggar approached his car and blew himself up.

The general's driver and his staff officer were also killed along with five civilians who were standing nearby. At least 20 people were injured.

Gen Baig is the most senior Pakistani officer to have been killed by hardline Islamists since the country joined the US-led 'war on terror'.

Over the past year there has been a sharp rise in the number of suicide bombings and armed attacks in Pakistan, which intelligence officials say have been carried out at the behest of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The killing of Gen Baig came a week after Pakistanis voted in parliamentary elections on 18 February. The elections have left the future of President Pervez Musharraf looking uncertain after opposition parties - chiefly the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League - won enough seats to form a majority government.

Western diplomats have warned that Musharraf faces growing opposition to his rule, although on 24 February retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, the presidential spokesman, strongly refuted reports that Musharraf was about to step down.

A senior Western defence official in Islamabad told Jane's that the United States was likely to continue supporting Musharraf for now but that it "may come around to dealing with a successor if the president's position became weak and untenable".

In a related development, it has been reported that Major General Nadeem Ijaz, director general of military intelligence, is being transferred to a new position. He is to be replaced by Major General Mohammad Asif, who has previously served in Russia on assignment for the Pakistani government.

The replacement of Gen Ijaz would deprive Musharraf of a key military ally.

A Western defence official told Jane's that the move reflected how General Ashfaq Kiyani, the new army chief appointed by Musharraf in October 2007, "was now becoming more assertive and bringing in his own people".

Senior Pakistani security officials said that Gen Kiyani was keen to remain neutral despite the mounting political uncertainty. In the run-up to elections, he made it known that the military would have no role in the elections except to provide security when needed.