Journalist Saleem Shahzad found dead near Islamabad

[JAYRAM]

ISI faces more heat after reporter's killing

By Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD | Wed Jun 1, 2011 6:30pm IST

(Reuters) - Speculation that Pakistan's military spy agency had a hand in the death of a prominent journalist has further discredited the organisation already facing one of its worst crises after the killing of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.

Saleem Shahzad, who worked for Hong-Kong based Asia Times Online and Italian news agency Adnkronos International, disappeared from Islamabad on Sunday and his body was found in a canal with what police said were torture marks.

Suspicion immediately fell on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, bringing more bad publicity after the killing of bin Laden by U.S. special forces near the capital.

The U.S. raid opened the agency up to international suspicion it was complicit in hiding bin Laden, and to domestic criticism for failing to detect or stop the U.S. team.

"The ISI's image had already been tarnished and it is under so much pressure," said a former ISI officer. "It's never been as bad as this before."

Shahzad was investigating suspected links between the military and al Qaeda, a highly sensitive subject at a time when Washington is wondering how bin Laden was able to live for years in a town about a two-hour drive from ISI headquarters.

The military denies any collusion with al Qaeda.

Human Rights Watch said Shahzad, a 40-year-old father of three, had voiced concern about his safety after receiving threatening telephone calls from the ISI and was under surveillance since 2010.

The ISI rejected suggestions of its involvement and criticised the media for jumping to that conclusion.

"Baseless accusations against the country's sensitive agencies for their alleged involvement in Shahzad's murder are totally unfounded," the ISI said in a statement.

"In the absence of any evidence and when an investigation is still pending, such allegations tantamount to unprofessional conduct on the part of the media."

Analysts have not ruled out the possibility that he may have been killed by militants. Shahzad often wrote about al Qaeda and other groups.

"PUSHED TO THE WALL"

He was buried on Wednesday in his hometown of Karachi, where suicide bombings have killed hundreds and security forces face some of their toughest battles against militancy.

Shahzad's wooden coffin was lowered in a graveyard as relatives, journalists and politicians looked on.

"It's cruel. My brother is gone. How will I live without my brother?," asked his sister, Maryam, after prayers were said.

Pakistan has a vibrant press which often attacks the government over everything from corruption to poor services and economic stagnation.

But criticism of the ISI or military is rare.

Reporters say Shahzad's death raises troubling questions about freedoms in Pakistan, which receives billions in aid from ally Washington and describes itself is a democracy.

"It means we are being pushed to the wall and losing space to tyranny if the ISI carried this out," said Umar Cheema, a journalist who knows all about the risks of investigating Pakistan's security establishment.

Last year, he was picked up by suspected intelligence agents, driven to an unknown location, stripped naked and whipped with leather and a wooden rod, he said.

"Pakistan is my beloved country but nobody is safe in Pakistan. I live in what I call self-imposed house arrest because I am scared to go out," said Cheema.

Shahzad was killed after he wrote a story that claimed al Qaeda attacked a naval base in Karachi last month after negotiations with the military to release two naval officials accused of militant links broke down.

That assault further humiliated the Pakistani military.

Some believe that with its loss of credibility after the bin Laden fiasco, and the naval base siege, the ISI may come under more public scrutiny for its apparent failure to tackle militancy and ease suicide bombings.

"Fewer people believe that the ISI is this powerful agency. People will start asking tougher questions," said Rifaat Hussain, head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

"They may be more willing to ask why the ISI is tapping the telephones of the opposition when it should be providing more security for the country."

But equally likely is that journalists will think twice about writing hard-hitting stories after Shahzad's death.

Others have died in similar circumstances in Pakistan, the world's most dangerous country for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.

"It is a death. The death of expression," said Matiullah Jan, a correspondent with Dawn News television.

"There is an apprehension in certain quarters that it's meant to send a shut-up message."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

ISI faces more heat after reporter's killing | Reuters

 

[JAYRAM]

A Pakistani journalist is killed and many questions remain unanswered

By Tim Lister, CNN
June 1, 2011 -- Updated 2135 GMT (0535 HKT)

(CNN) -- I never met Pakistani journalist Sayed Saleem Shahzad, but we exchanged e-mails about his work for Asia Times Online, and his remarkable scoops in interviewing some of the world's most wanted terrorists.

He was an investigative reporter in the truest sense, disappearing to remote areas of Waziristan for clandestine interviews, working contacts within Pakistan's byzantine security apparatus, delving into a murky world of conspiracies and shifting (often deadly) allegiances.

In the end, it was Shahzad's endless probing that probably killed him. On Sunday night, he was on his way from his home in the Pakistani capital to a TV station to do an interview on the security threats faced by Pakistan.

He never got there. His body was found Tuesday some 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, close to his car. It showed signs of torture, according to Pakistani media reports.

You could pick any number of stories that Shahzad had written as Asia Times' Pakistan bureau chief that would have embarrassed or infuriated someone.

Long-time colleague Zafar Mehmud Sheikh told CNN-IBN after his murder: "He was an extremely critical writer. His writings in Asia Times were not liked by many circles, especially power corridors, and that's why he was always getting threats, direct life threats not from one side, from all sides."

Many Pakistani journalists believe he was killed by elements within the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, because of his frequent reporting about co-operation and contacts between Pakistani security officials and extremist groups. He is known to have received several warnings about his reporting from the ISI. But it is equally possible that his reporting had gone too far for the likes of one of the many militant groups he was in touch with.

Shahzad had recently turned several controversial pieces about the attack by militants on the Pakistani naval base in Karachi.

One of them began in a way that would not have gone done well at ISI headquarters, describing the attack as "the violent beginning of an internal ideological struggle between Islamist elements in the Pakistani armed forces and their secular and liberal top brass."

He also cited (as he often did) unnamed sources in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, quoting one as saying: "It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested.....Now, they (intelligence) realize how the organization (navy) is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations."

In a follow-up article on May 27, Shahzad wrote: "Insiders at PNS Mehran (the Karachi naval base) provided maps, pictures of different exit and entry routes taken in daylight and at night, the location of hangers and details of likely reaction from external security forces."

Coming just weeks after the killing of Osama bin Laden a mile from Pakistan's most prestigious military academy, such reporting must have touched plenty of raw nerves within Pakistan's security establishment. It would not have been the first time.

In October 2010, Shahzad was summoned to a meeting at the ISI headquarters in Islamabad.

According to an e-mail of the meeting Shahzad later sent to a friend, the ISI asked him to write a retraction of a story about the release of a Taliban commander. Shahzad refused.

He was then told by an ISI official: "We have recently arrested a terrorist and have recovered a lot of data, dairies and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a hit list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know."

In comments about the e-mail made to the Associated Press of Pakistan, an ISI official said it had "no veiled or unveiled threats in it," The ISI "makes it a point to notify institutions and individuals alike of any threat warning received about them," he added.

But it is equally possible that Shahzad had become too knowledgeable about the operations of Islamist extremists for their comfort. He certainly had amazing connections within these groups.

Last year he wrote a fascinating piece about how the Pakistani Taliban had freed an Iranian diplomat they had kidnapped in exchange for anti-aircraft guns that might help them combat U.S. drone attacks.

More recently, he spoke with Maulvi Nazir, a Taliban leader who is one of the most powerful men in Pakistan's restive tribal territory of South Waziristan and who has long been on Pakistan's most wanted list. It was the first time Nazir had ever spoken with a journalist; and Shahzad dared to ask him about his record of opposing al Qaeda:

"Nazir's expression turned serious and he seemed a little tense, but in a fraction of a second he calmed down and replied with firmness. 'This is wrong that I am anti-al Qaeda. I am part of al Qaeda.'"

Shahzad could turn a wry sentence, too. At the end of the same article, he wrote: "I was on the point of asking for elaboration when Nazir said, "Why don't you join us for lunch," indicating in the most polite but unmistakable manner that the interview was over. "

The last time we exchanged e-mails it was about his forthcoming book: "Inside al Qaeda and the Taliban." I was planning to review it for CNN.com; he was pleased it would get some international exposure and proud of what he'd written. "It gives the detailed account on the real mastermind of Mumbai attack and how the same person changed the dynamics of Afghanistan war theatre," he wrote to me.

Shahzad was referring to Ilyas Kashmiri, one of the most feared terrorists in the world. His 313 Brigade is by many accounts closely linked to al Qaeda. In October 2009, Shahzad also became the first and only journalist to interview Kashmiri -- traveling for two days into a remote border area. At one point he was confined to a room and told: "The area is full of Taliban, but also of informers whose information on the presence of strangers in a house could lead to a drone attack."

When he finally was introduced to Kashmiri, his first question was a zinger: "So, you have survived a third drone strike ... why is the CIA sniffing around you so much?"

Fellow journalist Mazheer Abbas knew Shahzad for twenty years, and was always worried about his safety. They first met when Shahzad joined the Karachi-based newspaper The Star. "He started as a junior reporter," Abbas told CNN's Kiran Khalid. "Immediately he started coming out with stories on ethnic conflicts, sectarianism."

"I noticed that he started moving around with people who had close contacts with militants and the intelligence agencies. I told him to be very careful because you could be used by somebody."

"He was courageous but not very careful while reporting," Abbas said -- saying Shahzad had a tendency to talk openly about his contacts. "The level of distrust was very much there among intelligence agencies as well as militant groups. He would move forward and come out with the courageous stories despite the dangers."

And Abbas says Shahzad knew his stuff. "There are not many journalists who have so much command on militant groups the way he did," he said.

Shahzad's kidnapping, in the Pakistani capital's most protected area, has shocked Pakistani journalists. His friend Zafar Sheikh said: "A person has to think a hundred times before saying anything, before writing anything, before making a report. Before performing our journalistic duties, we think a hundred times about who will be angered by it, who will be so incensed that he will want to kill you."

Shahzad never let such thoughts stop him reporting.

He leaves a wife and three children.

CNN's Kiran Khalid contributed to this report

A Pakistani journalist is killed and many questions remain unanswered - CNN.com

 

[asianobserve]

I think Pakistan has descended into a long dark age...

 

[pmaitra]

MODs, kindly merge this thread with this one: Thread: Journalist Saleem Shahzad found dead near Islamabad

Respected members, please check if a thread already exists before opening a new one.

-Regards-

 

[JAYRAM]

MODs, kindly merge this thread with this one: Thread: Journalist Saleem Shahzad found dead near Islamabad

Respected members, please check if a thread already exists before opening a new one.

-Regards-

Merged................

 

[Ray]

His book (not available as yet in India) indicates that the ISI planned the Mumbai attack so as to take the heat of the AQ in Pakistan.

 

[sob]

The rot has really stepped in very deep in the armed forces of Pakistan. I seriously doubt the professionalism of the Pak Army if they can plan such terrorist activities so brazenly.

It is time to face the reality such acts cannot be the handiwork of a certain section within the ISI without the knowledge of the Top Brass. WE should stop accepting these excuses and get full pressure on Pakistan to fall in line.

 

[ejazr]

Daily Times - VIEW: The underbelly of terrorism that sucked in Shahzad —Gul Bukhari

Today, we find our population largely uneducated, without healthcare, without security — is that not ironic, without electricity, without industry, without anything but the grass Z A Bhutto promised

"I must give you a favour. We have recently arrested a terrorist and have recovered a lot of data, dairies and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a hit list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know."

Reportedly, these were the words of DG Media Wing ISI, Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir, quoted by Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief Asia Times Online, in his e-mail to Human Rights Watch on October 17, 2010.

These chilling sentences were said to him at the end of his meeting with the DG and the deputy DG Media Wing ISI, Commodore Khalid Pervaiz, after his refusal to divulge his sources for the story ('Pakistan frees Taliban commander', Asia Times Online, October 16, 2010) he did on Mullah Baradar's release by Pakistan's intelligence agencies, essentially for reasons of, yes, 'strategic depth'. The rear admiral had asked him to retract the story, as it was a cause of embarrassment for Pakistan (no, not because the story was not true, but because it was true), which Shahzad refused to do.

The fearless Shahzad carried on his excellent investigative stories on the underbelly of terrorism. You read that correctly — the underbelly of terrorism in the AfPak region. His latest story, 'Al Qaeda had warned of Pakistan strike' published on May 27, 2011 outlined the navy's negotiations with al Qaeda for the release of al Qaeda's infiltrators, the failure of which led to the devastating attack on PNS Mehran Naval Base.

Today he is not with us. Brutally tortured, the brilliant and brave journalist's body was found washed up in a canal near Head Rasool in Mandi Bahauddin on Tuesday, May 31.

How is Pakistani society still putting up with the people and institutions whose grotesque paradigms have brought us to this? What is 'this' you might ask. 'This' is the situation where for the last several decades the military inc has run amok with the nation's hard produced wealth and spent it upon itself and upon the actualisation of the myths (Indian, Hindu, Jewish and Israeli bogies) it created to perpetuate its iron grip on Pakistan.

Today, we find our population largely uneducated, without healthcare, without security — is that not ironic, without electricity, without industry, without anything but the grass Z A Bhutto promised. Even he could not have imagined how prophetic his words would turn out to be.

When will the Beasts of England and Beasts of Ireland rise up against Man? Let me quote a little here from George Orwell's epic Animal Farm. The similarities in actual conditions bring tears to my eyes whenever I think about it.

Old Major: "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin."

He continues all too poignantly, "and even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span...no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end...to that horror we all must come...all evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings...only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own...pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious."

We need to struggle to put the 'Man' back in the barracks, to insist that it work on catching the rabbits and not ruling and enslaving us, to ensure that it allows our miserable lives to reach their natural span.

One Saleem Shahzad is one too many; as is one PNS Mehran; as is one Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad; as is one Hafiz Saeed at large; as is one Mullah Baradar released; as is one child out of school for lack of budget allocation; as is one woman who commits suicide for lack of food for her children; as is one Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sent to the gallows; as is the fateful Wahabiisation of Pakistan; as is...the list rather reminds me of Carl Sagan's, Billions and Billions.

The Military Inc and military supremacy, not the military, needs dismantling. And the time is now, as Ali Nadir Syed wrote ('It's prosperity, stupid!', Daily Times, May 27, 2011). For us Pakistanis, the real war is against the 'gorilla in the room'.

Should we fight the only real war we ought to be fighting, one day the

"Rings shall vanish from our noses,

And the harness from our back,

Bit and spur shall rust forever,

Cruel whips shall crack no more."

 

[Solid Beast]

][[]][][[][]][[][]][

 

[ankur26888]

in the country like pakistan it will always happen,presently the condition r there

 

[The Messiah]

I think Pakistan has descended into a long dark age...

are you sure ?

its been in a "dark age" for quite a while now.

 

[Blackwater]

Cameraman who shot the footage gets life threats




KARACHI - Abdul Salam Soomro, the cameraman of a local Sindhi TV channel who captured the on-spot footage of Rangers killing Sarfaraz Shah, has been receiving life threats from an "unknown number". In protest against this harassment, journalists staged a token walkout from the press gallery of the Sindh Assembly on Thursday.
According to Soomro, he had received a phone call from an unknown number at 9:47am on Thursday. He said that a person on other side referred to the incident and said, "You have not done well. Now take care of yourself."
Sindh Information Minister, Sharjeel Memon later visited Soomro and the protesting journalists at the press room of the Assembly, and assured all that the government will make appropriate arrangements for his security.Earlier, while speaking in the house, Memon said that the Rangers director-general has also assured the government of holding ab impartial enquiry into the incident. He said that TV footage shows the person killed in the incident had continuously been seeking help to shift him to the hospital but nobody took him.
Lawmakers from the PPP and PML-F protested the incident, with the latter's Ghulam Qadir Chandio demanding of Speaker Nisar Khuhro to refer the incident to the Standing Committee on Home for investigation. Sindh Power Minister Shazia Marri regretted that political parties had always supported the Rangers stay in Sindh for security but they are killing people instead. Marvi Rashdi of the PML-F said that it was regretted that Sharjeel Memon was defending the Rangers by saying that all the personnel seen in footage were not responsible for killing of the citizen.

 

[JBH22]

Najam Sethi explains why this journalist was unwanted