ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan — Three officers of the Pakistan Navy are facing a court martial on charges of negligence in connection with the audacious May 22 attack by small band of Islamist insurgents on a naval base in the southern port city of Karachi, a senior naval official said Thursday.
The court martial, a highly unusual disiplinary action for any Pakistan military officer, appeared to reflect the sense of outrage and embarrassment in the Pakistani armed forces over the attack, which revealed incompetence and possibly complicity with the insurgents by naval personnel inside the base.
The base attack also came as the Pakistan military was still reeling from another big humiliation three weeks earlier — the American commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader, in a residential compound near a Pakistan military garrison only a few hours from Islamabad. Bin Laden’s location alone raised suspicions that some people in the Pakistan military knew he was hiding there.
Both the Bin Laden raid and the insurgent attack on the Mehran Base in Karachi subjected the military to an unprecedented barrage of criticism — even ridicule — in the country, where the armed forces have historically been respected. The outpouring of public criticism led to the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the Bin Laden raid and another internal naval inquiry to examine the naval base raid.
The naval inquiry, led by Rear Adm. Tehseenullah Khan, has accused the base commander and two other officers of negligence and failing to ensure security. At least four attackers easily managed to bypass the base security cordon and destroyed two American-made aircraft. At least 10 Pakistani security officers were killed in a 16-hour fight with the attackers.
A spokesman for the Pakistan Navy declined to provide details about the exact date or expected duration of the court martial against the three accused officers but confirmed that court martial proceedings had been initiated against them.
“There was a Board of Inquiry, and on its recommendation the procedure has started,” the spokesman, Commodore Irfanul Haq, said.
He declined to identify them by name. Local news media outlets identified them as Commodore Raja Tahir, Captain Israr and Lieutenant Ibrar.
Court martial proceedings against officers on charges of negligence or a breach of security are almost unheard of in Pakistan. No such disciplinary action was taken against any senior army officer after the headquarters of Pakistan Army was stormed by a group of militants in 2009.
Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the military, said that although no army officers had been prosecuted for negligence, several attackers were arrested and brought to justice.
Pakistani officials have said they believe the naval base attackers received inside help, but have not announced any arrests of possible accomplices. A former navy commando, who had been arrested in connection with the investigation, was released.
A Pakistani investigative journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad, was killed a day after he reported that the attack on the naval base was a reprisal for the navy’s arrest of naval personnel who had belonged to an Al Qaeda cell. American officials have said they have seen classified intelligence that suggests the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, ordered the journalist’s killing. The agency has denied this.
Both the Bin Laden raid and the insurgent attack on the Mehran Base in Karachi subjected the military to an unprecedented barrage of criticism — even ridicule — in the country, where the armed forces have historically been respected. The outpouring of public criticism led to the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the Bin Laden raid and another internal naval inquiry to examine the naval base raid.
The naval inquiry, led by Rear Adm. Tehseenullah Khan, has accused the base commander and two other officers of negligence and failing to ensure security. At least four attackers easily managed to bypass the base security cordon and destroyed two American-made aircraft. At least 10 Pakistani security officers were killed in a 16-hour fight with the attackers.
A spokesman for the Pakistan Navy declined to provide details about the exact date or expected duration of the court martial against the three accused officers but confirmed that court martial proceedings had been initiated against them.
“There was a Board of Inquiry, and on its recommendation the procedure has started,” the spokesman, Commodore Irfanul Haq, said.
He declined to identify them by name. Local news media outlets identified them as Commodore Raja Tahir, Captain Israr and Lieutenant Ibrar.
Court martial proceedings against officers on charges of negligence or a breach of security are almost unheard of in Pakistan. No such disciplinary action was taken against any senior army officer after the headquarters of Pakistan Army was stormed by a group of militants in 2009.
Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the military, said that although no army officers had been prosecuted for negligence, several attackers were arrested and brought to justice.
Pakistani officials have said they believe the naval base attackers received inside help, but have not announced any arrests of possible accomplices. A former navy commando, who had been arrested in connection with the investigation, was released.
A Pakistani investigative journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad, was killed a day after he reported that the attack on the naval base was a reprisal for the navy’s arrest of naval personnel who had belonged to an Al Qaeda cell. American officials have said they have seen classified intelligence that suggests the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, ordered the journalist’s killing. The agency has denied this.
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