5 men taken into custody for plotting attacks on army

Pakistani security agencies have taken into custody five men being held in two high-security prisons for allegedly plotting attacks on the army and senior military officers, according to a media report today.
The men, who had been imprisoned for the past three years in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur Jail, were allegedly involved in a plot to target army convoys and to abduct military officers and their family members, BBC Urdu reported.
The men were taken into custody by a civilian intelligence agency and moved to an undisclosed location for investigation.
They were suspected of having links with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Ghazi Force, which was formed by militants linked to the Lal Masjid in Islamabad after a military operation against the mosque in 2007.

BBC Urdu quoted its sources as saying that the suspects were picked up after security agencies intercepted their communications with their contacts at Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency and at Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The men were allegedly issuing directions to their contacts to coordinate attacks on the military and paramilitary forces.
Last year, a brazen attack by the Taliban on the central jail in Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had resulted in the escape of nearly 400 prisoners.
The freed prisoners included Adnan Rasheed, a high-profile militant and the main suspect in attempts to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf.