British Islamists plan coup in Pakistan: Report

September 21st, 2009 PHILADELPHIA - Former President Pervez Musharraf has said Pakistan would never allow foreign troops on its territory. Addressing a Pakistani doctors organization in Philadelphia, Musharraf said that Pakistan's defence is strong and no force can challenge the sovereignty of the country.

September 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Former president Pervez Musharraf has said he will return to Pakistan under pleasant conditions. He added that he will not retaliate against those who are demanding to try him under Article 6 of the Pakistan Constitution.

September 9th, 2009 LONDON - A top Pakistani diplomat has reacted strongly to Britain's accusations regarding Pakistan harbouring extremists plotting to attack the UK. The diplomat charged Britain of not doing enough to tackle home grown terrorists and treating Pakistan as a "whipping boy".

September 8th, 2009 LONDON - British investigators have revealed that a son of a Birmingham based baker having contacts with the Al-Qaeda, played a key role in planning the conspiracy to blow up at least seven airliners flying from Britain to different North American cities. As Scotland Yard tried to piece together the network of radicalized Islamists based in London and the lawless tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the arrest of Rashid Rauf, 25, made it clear that he played a key role in the conspiracy.

August 13th, 2009 LONDON - Britain is trying to persuade Pakistani politicians to spare the former president Pervez Musharraf from treason charges, a newspaper reported Thursday quoting senior opposition figures. The Daily Telegraph said a senior British diplomat had met former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to urge him not to press for the extradition of Musharraf, who is currently in London.

July 5th, 2009 LONDON - The writ of the Pakistan government is not only under threat from the ever expanding Taliban, but fears are also rife that British extremists may try to topple the democratic set-up of the country, as an Islamic fundamentalist group, Hizb- ut-Tahrir (HuT) is pushing for a "bloodless military coup" to establish an orthodox Islamic rule in the troubled nation. A report in The Times has revealed that the members of the HuT, who call themselves as the Liberation party in Britain, is working overtime to establish a caliphate in Pakistan, under which strict Islamic laws would rigorously be enforced.

June 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While fears are rife that Pakistan could fall into the hands of the Taliban, an American expert on the South Asian issues has warned that it was not the Taliban, but Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which possess the real danger to the sovereignty of the troubled nation. Famous author and thinker, Selig Harrison, warned that the LeT is could topple the democratic set-up of Pakistan and take over the reigns of the country.

May 17th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan is unlikely to get the American drones that it wants, a British newspaper reported Sunday. 'I want drones,' Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told the Sunday Times.

May 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said he does not need the support of the United States to claim power in Pakistan. "I have no intention to come into power with the support of the US or the Army," The Nation quoted Sharif, as saying.

May 2nd, 2009 LONDON - The Taliban is planning to bring down one of the eight Chinooks operating in Afghanistan, in the hope that the attack will weaken Britain's resolve to continue the campaign in Helmand. British Chinook helicopter routinely carry more than 40 armed troops, and aliban insurgents are actively seeking to bring down one of the eight Chinooks operating in Afghanistan, defence sources have said.

April 10th, 2009 LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari late on Thursday after the arrest of 10 Pakistani-born nationals on student visas and one UK-born British national on charges of terrorism, to warn him to do more to root out terrorist elements in Pakistan. This is the first time Pakistanis on student visas have been arrested on such serious charges.

April 10th, 2009 LONDON - Following the 9/11 incident the world saw Afghanistan as the hub of worldwide terrorism, but now the focus has shifted to Pakistan which experts believe is the origin of three-quarters of all terror plots. A report in The Telegraph states that at least three out of every four terror plots in Britain, which are being probed now, have Pakistani roots.

April 1st, 2009 LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh Wednesday that most of the terrorist attacks in Britain have their origins in Pakistan. The British premier made the comments at the fag-end of a meeting lasting over an hour at his office at 10 Downing Street, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters.

March 25th, 2009 LONDON - Most analysts are of the view that if Pakistan is to make any progress in the comity of nations, it has shut down its terrorist training camps, and prevent the entry of potential insurgents from abroad. British security officials estimate that about 4,000 people have been trained in Pakistan or Afghanistan and now account for three quarters of serious terrorist plots in Britain, and this explains why Pakistan features so prominently in the new counter-terrorism strategy.

January 3rd, 2009 LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Sunday that solving the 'Pakistan problem' is crucial to an Afghan strategy. Asked if more troops were needed in Afghanistan, Brown told BBC in an interview: 'We [Britain] have already got more troops there but we need to solve the Pakistan problem.' 'We need to ensure that there's an economic stake in the country in Afghanistan and we've got to back up the Afghan army - at some point they've got to take control of their own affairs.' In a separate interview with The Observer newspaper published Sunday, the British leader said British forces are endangered by the ability of terrorists to move to and fro Pakistan.