US officials believe Pakistan’s intelligence agency was behind the killing of a Pakistani journalist who reported that militants had infiltrated the military, the New York Times reported Monday.
The newspaper quoted two senior officials as saying that intelligence showed that senior members of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency ordered the killing of Saleem Shahzad.
It quoted another senior official as saying: “Every indication is that this was a deliberate, targeted killing that was most likely meant to send shock waves through journalist community and civil society.”
The ISI has denied as “baseless” allegations that it was involved in the murder of Shahzad.
The reporter, who worked for an Italian news agency and a Hong Kong-registered news site, went missing en route to a television talk show and his body was found last week south of the capital, bearing marks of torture.
Shahzad disappeared two days after writing an investigative report in Asia Times Online saying Al-Qaeda carried out a recent attack on a naval air base to avenge the arrest of naval officials held on suspicion of Al-Qaeda links.
An ISI official said last week that Shahzad’s “unfortunate and tragic” death was a “source of concern for the entire nation” but “should not be used to target and malign the country’s security agencies”.
The government has ordered an inquiry into the kidnapping and murder, pledging that the culprits would be brought to justice, but angry journalists say past investigations into killings of journalists have come to nothing.
