According to a story appearing in the latest issue of The New Yorker, an American intelligence official has claimed that a senior Pakistani official allegedly speaking for Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani had ordered the killing of Asia Times Online journalist Saleem Shahzad.
However, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Athar Abbas called the allegation “preposterous”. According to the report authored by Dexter Filkins, Shahzad angered Pakistani authorities by writing about al Qaeda infiltrating the Pakistan Navy at a particularly sensitive time in Pakistan, as the country’s leaders reeled from the humiliation of the Osama bin Laden raid.
“The initial directive was not to kill him but to rough him up,” Filkins reports, but, according to an American official, a senior Pakistani officer speaking for Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Kayani later ordered Shahzad killed. Filkins says the Inter-Services Intelligence and the military may have targeted Shahzad not only because of his incendiary articles but also because they suspected he was a foreign spy. The report says that shortly before his death, Shahzad had been in touch with several foreign intelligence officials as part of his reporting and had been recruited by British and Indian intelligence agencies. Filkins also hones in on the fact that a US drone strike killed Ilyas Kashmiri, a top al Qaeda leader and a subject and source in Shahzad’s articles, in Pakistan’s tribal region only four days after Shahzad’s body was discovered. “Given the brief time that passed between Shahzad’s death and Kashmiri’s, a question inevitably arose. Did the Americans find Kashmiri on their own?” Filkins asks. “Or did they benefit from information obtained by the ISI during its detention of Shahzad? If so, Shahzad’s death would be not just a terrible example of Pakistani state brutality, it would be a terrible example of the collateral damage sustained in America’s war on terror.” Filkins adds that Shahzad’s cell phone records revealed more than 258 calls in one month to and from a single number that may have been Kashmiri’s.
Wtf?=(
Filkins is accepting it that he got contacts with some foreign Intelligence Agencies so whats wrong if a SPY is killed ..
If its prooved that he was working as a foreign spy then why shall we or any one from Pakistan feels guilty.
The latest diatribe by American press and senior members of administration implicating ISI in the murder without any evidence is yet another attempt to influence the outcome of the probe and increase pressure on Pakistan’s military. Those who have been following the story of Raymond Davis, a CIA operative caught with clear evidence of espionage and his contacts with banned terrorist organizations, will find striking similarities between handling by US administration and media of his arrest and journalist’s murder . The way this murder is being highlighted and the probe panel pressurized to incriminate Pakistani establishment shows as if the slain journalist was another Raymond Davis working in Pakistan. Read more at: http://pksecurity.blogspot.com/2011/07/was-slain-…
finally someone has the courage to publish against the establishment…thousands of people have already been killed or abducted by the ISI but it still remains the country's saviour…congrats !!!
This is not 16th century that a spy can be killed..refer to recent history when Russian and American spies were sent home.
Please Pakistan Today also publish what actually Raymond Davis did so that ISI's role in his implication and killing a victim's wife is exposed http://www.uroojzia.com/work/?p=978
The claim to fame of the slain journalist was his sensational stories, largely based on gossip, unverified truth and glorification of acts of terrorism, on Taliban, al Qaeda and Pakistani establishment. These would remain unnoticed if his death was not used by the anti-Pakistan elements for their ulterior motives. He received international limelight after his murder. This unfortunate murder made his book, which was published posthumously, sell like hot cakes. The book largely consists of narrations based on information, relating to Pakistan provided by unnamed sources and first-hand information, relating to terrorists, provided by al Qaeda operatives named in the book. Unlike other books on the subject, this book is not based on any scientific research. The conclusions drawn in the book clearly point to the real motive behind this otherwise poorly drafted manuscript. The book contains all those stories which are music to the ears of terrorists and foreign intelligence agencies. Read more at: http://passivevoices.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/ins…
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