PAKISTAN’S GOVERNMENT has denounced claims by the US chief military commander that it sanctioned the killing of an investigative journalist who had probed links between militants and the country’s security services.
The death of Syed Saleem Shahzad, whose tortured body was pulled from a canal last month, triggered a flurry of speculation about the possible role of Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). But Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said he could not confirm its involvement.
“I have not seen anything to disabuse the report that the [Pakistani] government knew about this,” Adm Mullen said.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton condemned the killing soon after Shahzad’s body was found, but Adm Mullen’s remarks, made to reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday, are the most pointed yet from Washington.
A Pakistani government spokesman branded the allegations as “extremely irresponsible” and said they would not help in investigating the murder.
Adm Mullen said he was “hugely concerned” that the killing of journalists was being used as a method of intimidation in Pakistan. “It’s not a way [for Pakistan] to move ahead, it’s a way to continue to quite frankly spiral in the wrong direction.”
His remarks are likely to further strain an already tense relationship between the two allies, which had been badly damaged by the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Shahzad (40) who worked for the Hong Kong-based Asia Timesand other publications including Le Monde Diplomatique, disappeared from Islamabad on May 29th. His body was discovered two days later.
His final article for Asia Timessuggested that a recent militant strike on a naval base in Karachi had been carried out in response to efforts to root out al-Qaeda sympathisers that had infiltrated the lower ranks of Pakistan's navy. He also claimed the attack followed failed negotiations between the navy and al-Qaeda about the release of naval officers detained on suspicion of terrorist links.
The manner of Shahzad’s abduction, torture, and killing, along with the fact that he had felt sufficiently threatened by the ISI to contact Human Rights Watch last October, has caused many in Pakistan to blame the spy agency.
The ISI has long been notorious for harassing and intimidating reporters in a country considered one of the most dangerous in the world for journalists.
Within days of Shahzad’s death, the ISI issued an unprecedented public statement denying it had anything to do with it. But suspicions linger and the agency has been the target of considerable public condemnation.
Earlier this week, the New York Timesquoted unnamed US officials saying they had intelligence that led them to believe the agency ordered the killing.
Pakistan’s government has established a judicial commission to investigate the death, but it has already been the subject of criticism. Shahzad’s wife Anita, and children, travelled to Italy this week to receive a journalism prize awarded to the reporter in recognition of his bravery.