RAWALPINDI, May 14: From his prison cell, a senior Pakistani officer accused of plotting with a shadowy Islamist organisation to take over the military released his political manifesto: His call was for the army to sever its anti-terror alliance with the United States, which he contends is forcing Pakistan to fight its own people.

“This may help us redeem some of our lost dignity and we badly need that,” Brig Ali Khan writes in the six-page document obtained by The Associated Press. The US, he says, might retaliate by cutting military and economic aid, but “do they not always do this at will? ... Our fears that the heavens will fall must be laid to rest.”

The manifesto reveals the ideological underpinnings of the most senior military officer detained for alleged ties to extremists.

The accusations against Brig Khan go to the heart of a major western fear about Pakistan: that its army could tilt towards extremism or that a cabal of hardline officers could seize the country’s most powerful institution, possibly with the help of Al Qaeda or associated groups like the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani leaders dismiss such worries as ungrounded.

Details of the case point to efforts by some Islamist groups to recruit within military, though their success appears mixed.

Brig Khan, who was arrested a year ago, faces charges of conspiring with four other officers and a British member of Hizbut Tahrir to recruit officers to the group, including the commander of the army’s 111 Brigade, which covers the capital and has been historically linked to army coups.

One witness at his ongoing court-martial said Brig Khan discussed sending an F-16 jet crashing into the army headquarters, though that allegation has been withdrawn, according to his lawyer Inamul Rahiem.

The army has declined to comment on the trial.

Banned organisation Hizbut Tahrir professes non-violence, but makes no secret of its desire to penetrate the armies of Muslim countries, particularly Pakistan, and foment an ‘Islamic coup’ to establish a global caliphate.

In interviews, Brig Khan’s family and two of his colleagues insisted he was innocent and had been targeted because of a falling out with senior officers and his political views. Brig Khan’s lawyer has denied the charges and says no concrete evidence has been presented at the trial.

But one of the colleagues said Brig Khan did meet members of Hizbut Tahrir and tried to enlist other officers, though the colleague played down the importance of the contacts.—AP