The US believed the Pakistan government “sanctioned” the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, who had been probing links between the country’s security services and its Islamic militants, a report in the Houston Chronicle quoted US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen as saying on Thursday.
“It was sanctioned by the government,” Mullen told journalists in Washington on Thursday. “I have not seen anything to disabuse that the government knew about it.” Mullen’s comments are the first high-level confirmation that Washington believes its nominal allies in Islamabad ordered the kidnapping, torture, and killing of Shahzad, 41, in May. The comments will only add new stress to the deeply troubled relationship between the two countries.
Shahzad wrote for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and the Italian news agency Adnkronos International. He disappeared shortly after the publication of an sarticle he wrote saying a militant attack on the Pakistani navy’s main base in Karachi earlier in May was payback for the navy trying to crack down on al Qaeda infiltrators in its ranks.
Following his death, the US administration condemned his killing, calling on the Pakistani government to launch a full investigation.
Mullen the reported abuse of journalists was no way for a government to move ahead, but a way to spiral in the wrong direction. Mullen is the first top US leader to publicly link the killing to Pakistan’s government.
Mr. Shahzad sustained 17 lacerated wounds delivered by a blunt instrument, a ruptured liver and two broken ribs. Mr. Shahzad's waterlogged body was retrieved May 30 from a canal 60 miles from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
He was a father, a husband, a son and a friend. He was a good man. Respect his spirit, respect his soul.
FIND THE CRIMINALS.
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