Naipaul kin was murdered before he could expose Pak generals' links with Taliban

London, Dec.14 (ANI): The brother-in-law of British Nobel Laureate novelist V S Naipaul was murdered last month after threatening to expose Pakistani army generals who had made deals with Taliban militants.

According to The Times, Major-General Faisal Alavi, a former head of Pakistan's special forces, whose sister Nadira is Lady Naipaul, named two generals in a letter to the head of the army.

He warned that he would "furnish all relevant proof".

Aware that he was risking his life, he gave a copy to The Times to publish it if he was killed.

Soon afterwards he told me that he had received no reply.

"It hasn't worked," he said. "They'll shoot me."

Four days later, he was driving through Islamabad when his car was halted by another vehicle. At least two gunmen opened fire from either side, shooting him eight times. His driver was also killed.

This weekend, as demands grew for a full investigation into Alavi's murder on November 18, Lady Naipaul described her brother as "a soldier to his toes".

She said: "He was an honourable man and the world was a better place when he was in it."

Three years earlier this feted general, who was highly regarded by the SAS, had been mysteriously sacked as head of its Pakistani equivalent, the Special Services Group, for "conduct unbecoming".

A letter, addressed to General Ashfaq Kayani, the chief of army staff, was a final attempt to have his honour restored.

Alavi believed he had been forced out because he was openly critical of deals that senior generals had done with the Taliban. He disparaged them for their failure to fight the war on terror wholeheartedly and for allowing Taliban forces based in Pakistan to operate with impunity against British and other Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Alavi, who had dual British and Pakistani nationality, named the generals he accused. He told Kayani that the men had cooked up a "mischievous and deceitful plot" to have him sacked because they knew he would expose them. (ANI)