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Pakistani Journalist Saleem Shahzad Found Dead
BBC NEWS, SOUTH ASIA
May 31, 2011: A Pakistani journalist feared abducted after he went missing on Sunday has been found dead, his family has confirmed. Police said Saleem Shahzad's body was found in a canal in Mandi Baha Uddin in Pakistan's northern Gujarat district.
Earlier, Human Rights Watch researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said he had "credible information" that Shahzad was in the custody of Pakistani intelligence. He recently wrote an article about al-Qaeda infiltration in Pakistan's navy. He reported that the militant group had launched the deadly assault on the Mehran base in Karachi, the headquarters of the navy's air wing, on May 22 because talks had failed over the release of several naval personnel arrested on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda affiliates.
Shahzad's family said he had disappeared after leaving his home in Islamabad on Sunday evening and heading to a television station to participate in a talk show. They immediately issued statements saying they feared for his safety.
Mr Hasan of Human Rights Watch said Shahzad had recently complained about being threatened by the intelligence arm of the Pakistan military, the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). After writing one article in October, Shahzad was summoned to an ISI office, where an intelligence officer issued what appeared to be a veiled threat, he added. Shahzad sent him notes of the meeting "in case something happens to me or my family".
"The perpetrators of this murder have to be identified through a transparent inquiry and due process, and must be held accountable. However, Human Rights Watch is aware that Saleem Shahzad had claimed to have received multiple threats from the ISI, and we regard those threats as credible," Mr Hasan said in a statement.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told the Associated Press it was "absurd" to say that the ISI had anything to do with Shahzad's death.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said: "We are losing our professional colleagues but the government never unearths who is behind the killing of journalists."
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has expressed his heartfelt condolences to Shahzad's family and ordered an immediate inquiry into his kidnapping and murder.
Shahzad had a wife and three children, worked for the Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) and was Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online.
Human rights groups recently called Pakistan the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to operate, saying they were under threat from Islamist militants but also Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies.
