Kritisk pakistansk journalist funnet død

Den kri­tiske pakis­tanske jour­na­lis­ten Syed Saleem Sha­hzad er fun­net død i nær­he­ten av Isla­ma­bad bare dager etter å ha skre­vet at al Qaida har infil­trert Pakis­tans marine.

Sha­hzad arbei­det for det ita­li­enske nyhets­by­rået Adn­kro­nos og nett­ma­ga­si­net Asia Times Online, og skrev regel­mes­sig for inter­na­sjo­nale pub­li­ka­sjo­ner. Han for­lot sitt hjem i Isla­ma­bad søn­dag for å delta i et talk­show, men ble meldt sav­net da han ikke duk­ket opp.

Fors­ker i Human Rights Watch (HRW), Ali Dayan Hasan, har uttalt at han har “tro­ver­dig infor­ma­sjon” om at Sha­hzad ble tatt i vare­tekt av den pakis­tanske sik­ker­hets­tje­nes­ten (ISI):

A Pakis­tani jour­na­list who was 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.

Bare dager før skrev den 40 år gamle jour­na­lis­ten at al Qaida sto bak det døde­lige angre­pet på Mehran-basen i Kara­chi, den pakis­tanske mari­nens luft­base, den 22. mai, etter at for­hand­lin­ger om løs­la­telse av marine­per­so­nell mis­tenkt for for­bin­del­ser til ter­ror­or­ga­ni­sa­sjo­nen hadde brutt sam­men. Minst 14 men­nes­ker ble drept og to marine­fly ble ødelagt i angre­pet. Kort etter ble en tid­li­gere kom­mando­sol­dat og hans bror pågre­pet, mis­tenkt for å ha del­tatt i plan­leg­gin­gen av angre­pet på mili­tær­ba­sen. Arresta­sjo­nen satt det pakis­tanske mili­tæ­ret i forlegenhet.

Shahzad’s family said he had dis­appea­red after lea­ving his home in Isla­ma­bad on Sun­day evening for an inter­view at a tele­vi­sion station.

They imme­dia­tely issued state­ments say­ing they feared for his safety.

The 40 year old’s body was found in a canal in the Sarai Alam­gir area of Mandi Baha Uddin, some 150km (93 miles) south-east of the capi­tal. His car was found about 10km (six miles) away.

The head of Mar­galla police sta­tion in Isla­ma­bad, Fayaz Tanoli, told the BBC that the local police force took pho­to­graphs of the body and infor­med his offi­cers on Mon­day that it might be Shahzad’s.

The pho­to­graphs were shown to Shahzad’s brother-in-law, Hamza Amir, who iden­ti­fied the remains. Police said he had cuts to his face.

Syed Saleem Sha­hzad skal ha for­talt Ali Dayan Hasan i HRW at han hadde mot­tatt trus­ler fra ISI:

“He visited our office and infor­med us that the ISI had threate­ned him. He told us that if any­thing hap­pe­ned to him, we should inform the media about the situa­tion and threats,” he told the AFP news agency.

“We can form an opi­nion after the investi­ga­tion and a court ver­dict, but… in the past, the ISI has been involved in simi­lar incidents.”

Mr Hasan also said he had been told by some Pakis­tani govern­ment offi­ci­als that they belie­ved Sha­hzad was in ISI custody.

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.

Det pakis­tanske jour­na­list­for­bun­det sier: “Vi mis­ter våre pro­fe­sjo­nelle kol­le­gaer, men regje­rin­gen avslø­rer aldri hvem som står bak dra­pene på jour­na­lis­ter”. Men­neske­ret­tig­hets­grup­per utta­ler at Pakis­tan er ett av de far­ligste ste­dene i ver­den for jour­na­lis­ter, som ikke bare trues av mili­tante isla­mis­ter, men også lan­dets mili­tære og etterretningstjeneste.

Syed Saleem Sha­hzad etter­la­ter seg kone og tre barn.

BBC: Pakis­tani jour­na­list Saleem Sha­hzad found dead