ISI faces more heat after reporter’s killing

Speculation that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had a hand in the killing of prominent journalist, Saleem Shehzad, has further discredited the organisation already facing one of its worst crises after the killing of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil. Shehzad, 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. Suspicions immediately fell on the ISI.
“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.” Shehzad 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 the ISI headquarters.
The military denies any collusion with al Qaeda. Human Rights Watch said Shehzad, a 40-year-old father of three, had voiced concerns about his safety after receiving threatening telephone calls from the ISI and was under surveillance since 2010. ISI officials were not available for comment. Analysts have not ruled out the possibility that he may have been killed by militants. Shehzad often wrote about al Qaeda and other groups.
Reporters say Shehzad’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. An ISI official said “the reported e-mail of Saleem Shehzad to Ali Hasan Dayan of the HRW which is being made the basis of baseless allegations levelled against the ISI has no veiled or unveiled threats in it”. The official said in Shehzad’s words, “the conversation was held in an extremely polite and friendly atmosphere and there was no mincing of words in the room at any stage”.
The official said it was regrettable that some sections of the media had taken it upon themselves to use the incident for targeting and maligning the ISI. “Baseless accusations against the country’s sensitive agencies for their alleged involvement in Shehzad’s murder are totally unfounded.” “The ISI offers deepest and heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family and assures them that it will leave no stone unturned in helping to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice,” the official stated. At the same time, said the ISI official, the media should act with responsibility.