Pakistan, ucciso giornalista dai servizi segreti: indagava sui legami tra l’esercito e Al Qaeda
martedì, 31 Maggio, 2011Giornalista pachistano ucciso. Saleem Shahzad era stato preso dai servizi segreti dell’Isi. E’ stato ritrovato morto con segni di tortura sul corpo e in faccia. Stava investigando sui legami tra l0esercito e Al Qaeda. Dal Guardian del 31.5.2011:
Missing Pakistan journalist Saleem Shahzad found dead near Islamabad
Shahzad’s body was discovered less than two days after he was allegedly abducted by ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service
- Declan Walsh in Islamabad
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 May 2011 20.46 BST
- Article history
A prominent Pakistani journalist who investigated links between the military and al-Qaida has been found dead, triggering angry accusations against the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan correspondent for a news service based in Hong Kong, disappeared on his way to a television interview in Islamabad on Sunday evening. On Tuesday police said they found his body on a canal bank in Mandi Bahauddin, 80 miles south-east of the capital.
Shahzad’s abandoned car was found 25 miles away. Television images of his body showed heavy bruising to his face. Media reports said he had a serious trauma wound to the stomach.
Human Rights Watch had already raised the alarm over the disappearance of the 40-year-old father of three, citing a “reliable interlocutor” who said he had been abducted by ISI.
“This killing bears all the hallmarks of previous killings perpetrated by Pakistani intelligence agencies,” said a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in south Asia, Ali Dayan Hasan. He called for a “transparent investigation and court proceedings”.
Other journalists reacted angrily, directly accusing ISI of responsibility on television and social media. “Any journalist here who doesn’t believe that it’s our intelligence agencies?” tweeted Mohammed Hanif, a bestselling author.
“We want an answer. We need an answer. We deserve an answer,” said talk-show host Quatrina Husain.
A senior ISI official told the Associated Press that allegations of the agency’s involvement were absurd.
Shahzad, who worked for the online service Asia Times Online and the Italian news agency Adnkronos, vanished two days after publishing a story alleging Pakistan military officials had been in secret negotiations with al-Qaida.
The story claimed that the terrorist group had attacked the Mehran naval base in Karachi on 22 May after talks with the military to release two naval officials accused of militant links broke down.
The naval base assault was a humiliation for the Pakistani army, which battled for 17 hours against at least four heavily armed men who blew up two US-built surveillance planes and killed 10 soldiers. On Tuesday, Pakistani media reported that military intelligence had picked up a retired navy commando and his brother in Lahore in connection with the raid.
The raid came after unprecedented criticism of the army for the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and WikiLeaks disclosures that showed army complicity with the CIA drone programme.
Shahzad was abducted from central Islamabad on Sunday as he travelled to the studios of Dunya television to discuss his report on the naval base attack. His wife alerted human rights groups.
He had previously warned of threats to his life from ISI, according to Human Rights Watch. Last October, after he was summoned to ISI headquarters to explain a story, he sent an email to be released in the event of his death, Hasan said.
The email recounted a meeting with two senior ISI personnel who questioned him over a story about Mullah Brader, a Taliban commander captured in Pakistan with American help months earlier.
The two ISI officials named in the article, Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir and Commodore Khalid Pervaiz, were naval officers. Shahzad claimed that Nazir warned the journalist that he might find himself on a “terrorist hitlist”. “If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know,” he reportedly said.
Last week, Pervaiz was made commander of the Karachi naval base that was attacked.
“We believed [Shahzad’s] claim that he was being threatened by the ISI was credible and any investigation into his murder has to factor this in,” said Hasan.
As a reporter, Shahzad was known for delving deep into the murky underworld of Islamist militancy. He had interviewed some of the most notorious leaders, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, a major player in the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani militant who works for al-Qaida.
He had just published a book called Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11.
Zaffar Abbas, editor of Dawn, Pakistan’s most respected paper, paid tribute to Shahzad as “a fine reporter, one of a breed of Pakistani journalists who really believe in investigative journalism”. In the light of the death, he is was looking at scaling back his own paper’s coverage.
“I am seriously considering the entire process of reporting, and to what extent I can put my own team at risk. It is becoming increasingly dangerous for people to openly report, whether militants or security agencies are involved.”
Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, expressed his “deep grief and sorrow” over Shahzad’s death and ordered an inquiry, saying that “the culprits would be brought to book at every cost”.
Hopes for any inquiry, however, were low. Although the ISI technically reports to Gilani, it is in reality controlled by the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani. Although accused of numerous human rights abuses over the years, serving ISI officials have never been prosecuted.
Cricketer turned politician Imran Khan termed Shahzad’s death a “heinous crime” but avoided mention of the ISI, instead blaming the “servile policies [of] a corrupt and inept government”.
Pakistan is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists, according to Reporters without Borders, which says that 16 journalists have been killed in the past 14 months. Some of the worst excesses occurred in western province of Balochistan.
Last September Umar Cheema, another investigative reporter, was abducted from Islamabad for six hours and tortured before being released. He said he suspected that his kidnappers belonged to the ISI.
- Appuntamenti (45)
- Best (136)
- Cultura (95)
- Fotografia (26)
- Internet-Media (108)
- Lettere (20)
- Libri (25)
- Mondo (2.247)
- Ndrangheta (4)
- Politica (192)
- Società (3.530)
-
andrea
Flavia Perina in questa prosa che filtra cose a lei scomode (Elena Pacinelli) e amplifica particolari insignificanti (presnuto gramscianesimo della… -
Alessandro Londero
Salve, se Paolo Brogi avesse richiamato magari avrebbe potuto avere più info di quel viaggio. Ora che l’ONU ha fatto… -
Geneva
Hi there to every body, it's my first visit of this blog; this webpage consists of awesome and in fact…
- Aprile 2022
- Marzo 2022
- Febbraio 2022
- Gennaio 2022
- Dicembre 2021
- Novembre 2021
- Ottobre 2021
- Maggio 2021
- Marzo 2021
- Febbraio 2021
- Gennaio 2021
- Dicembre 2020
- Settembre 2020
- Maggio 2020
- Aprile 2020
- Marzo 2020
- Febbraio 2020
- Giugno 2019
- Maggio 2019
- Aprile 2019
- Marzo 2019
- Gennaio 2019
- Novembre 2018
- Ottobre 2018
- Settembre 2018
- Agosto 2018
- Giugno 2018
- Maggio 2018
- Marzo 2018
- Febbraio 2018
- Gennaio 2018
- Novembre 2017
- Ottobre 2017
- Maggio 2017
- Aprile 2017
- Marzo 2017
- Febbraio 2017
- Gennaio 2017
- Dicembre 2016
- Novembre 2016
- Ottobre 2016
- Settembre 2016
- Agosto 2016
- Luglio 2016
- Giugno 2016
- Maggio 2016
- Aprile 2016
- Marzo 2016
- Febbraio 2016
- Gennaio 2016
- Dicembre 2015
- Novembre 2015
- Ottobre 2015
- Settembre 2015
- Agosto 2015
- Luglio 2015
- Giugno 2015
- Maggio 2015
- Aprile 2015
- Marzo 2015
- Febbraio 2015
- Gennaio 2015
- Dicembre 2014
- Novembre 2014
- Ottobre 2014
- Settembre 2014
- Agosto 2014
- Luglio 2014
- Giugno 2014
- Maggio 2014
- Aprile 2014
- Marzo 2014
- Febbraio 2014
- Gennaio 2014
- Dicembre 2013
- Novembre 2013
- Ottobre 2013
- Settembre 2013
- Agosto 2013
- Luglio 2013
- Giugno 2013
- Maggio 2013
- Aprile 2013
- Marzo 2013
- Febbraio 2013
- Gennaio 2013
- Dicembre 2012
- Novembre 2012
- Ottobre 2012
- Settembre 2012
- Agosto 2012
- Luglio 2012
- Giugno 2012
- Maggio 2012
- Aprile 2012
- Marzo 2012
- Febbraio 2012
- Gennaio 2012
- Dicembre 2011
- Novembre 2011
- Ottobre 2011
- Settembre 2011
- Agosto 2011
- Luglio 2011
- Giugno 2011
- Maggio 2011
- Aprile 2011
- Marzo 2011
- Febbraio 2011
- Gennaio 2011
- Dicembre 2010
- Novembre 2010
- Ottobre 2010
- Settembre 2010
- Agosto 2010
- Luglio 2010
- Giugno 2010
- Maggio 2010
- Aprile 2010
- Marzo 2010
- Febbraio 2010
- Gennaio 2010