ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials have arrested a retired Pak istani army major for his suspected role in an alleged plot that was hatched in the U.S. to assassinate the creator of controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the Pakistani army said Tuesday.
The news will fuel growing fears about the radicalization of Pakistan’s army, and particularly the links between former army officers and Islamic extremists.
Two men of Pakistani origin, U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley and Canadian national Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were charged in Chicago with planning an armed attack in Denmark. Their target was the cartoonist and Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons in 2005.
The U.S. indictment said the two had been in contact with the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and with Pakistani extremist Ilyas Kashmiri — the first time that Kashmiri and Lashkar have been firmly linked to an alleged plot in the West.
The group, which has long had links to Pakistan’s military and its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, is thought to be responsible for the terrorist attack that killed more than 160 people in the Indian city of Mumbai last year.
The Pakistani army said the major, who retired two years ago, was arrested several months ago. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the chief army spokesman, denied that any others were detained in connection with the Danish cartoons plot.
“(The retired major) was in communication with those guys (Headley and Rana) in the States,” Abbas said, adding: “Once you leave the army, you become a private citizen.”
The Associated Press reported that five officers were detained, including at least two serving as lieutenant colonels.
