Who actually killed Saleem Shahzad:price of truth

The body of Syed Saleem Shahzad, one of Pakistan’s best investigative journalists, was found yesterday from Mandi Bahauddin. Mr Shahzad was Pakistan bureau chief of Asia Times Online. He went missing on May 29, 2011 from Islamabad when he was on his way to a local television channel to participate in a talk show but he never made it. Reports suggest that he disappeared between 5:30-6:00 pm from a high security area in Islamabad. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Mr Shahzad had voiced his concerns that a sensitive intelligence agency could harm him. In an interview with TIME magazine, HRW’s Ali Dayan Hasan said: “To date, no intelligence personnel have been held accountable for frequently perpetrated abuses against journalists. Tolerance for these practices has to end, now.”

Saleem Shahzad’s last story for Asia Times Online revealed how al Qaeda had penetrated the Pakistan Navy. The attack on PNS Mehran took place “after talks failed between the Navy and al Qaeda over the release of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al Qaeda links,” wrote Mr Shahzad in his report on May 27. This was the first part of his report but he was abducted before the second part could be published.

It is a sad day, nay black day, for journalism in Pakistan that a journalist was picked up from the capital and his tortured body dumped in another town while the perpetrators of this gory crime roam free. This is not the first time that a journalist has lost his life for honest reporting. In the past we have been witness to the deaths of many brave journalists in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan, FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is not without reason that Pakistan has been dubbed as the most dangerous place for journalists by Reporters without Borders. Journalists in Pakistan are between a rock and a hard place: they face threats both from the militants and our intelligence agencies. When journalists write or speak against terrorists, they receive threats. When they expose our military’s links with terrorists, they are harassed. Threats, harassment, abduction and even murder is what journalists in Pakistan are victims of all too frequently.

Syed Saleem Shahzad’s brutal murder seems like a warning to Pakistan’s journalist community that if they continue to report honestly, they can be killed. If the people of Pakistan, especially the media community, does not wake up and speak out against such brutalities, every sane voice in the country will die a silent death. If we remain quiet, this will be our own self-inflicted Holocaust. Prime Minister Gilani has ordered an inquiry into Mr Shahzad’s murder. The question is, will this be like any other inquiry that takes place here, with no results? We must urge the government to probe into this matter and make the results of the investigation public.

This should also serve as an eye-opener for those who have been apologising for the military and the Taliban alike. How many more innocents have to die before we realise that our country is a war zone where no one is safe from either our so-called saviours or the terrorists. Mr Shahzad and many others like him paid the price for reporting the truth. We must stop blaming external forces for what we are facing right now. In a country where terrorists, murderers, rapists and criminals roam free, deaths of innocents are all but inevitable. How many more people will have to sacrifice their lives before we finally call a spade a spade? Pakistan is in a deep mess right now and it is all our own doing. Let’s wake up to this reality before our soil turns completely red (if it has not already) with the blood of our citizens. RIP Saleem Shahzad; we cannot condemn or mourn your death adequately in words. Our only salvation now lies in bringing Mr Shahzad’s murderers to book. *

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ISI faces more heat after journalist's killing
By Reuters
Published: June 1, 2011

Syed Salim Shahzad, the bureau chief of online Asia Times newspaper, is seen here in an undated photo. A Pakistani journalist who went missing three days ago from the capital Islamabad was found dead in Islamabad on Tuesday, according to police. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: Speculation that the ISI had a hand in the death of prominent journalist Saleem Shahzad has further discredited the organisation already facing one of its worst crises after the killing of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.

Saleem Shahzad, 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 Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, bringing more bad publicity after the killing of bin Laden by US special forces near the capital.

The raid, which Pakistan failed to detect or stop, shattered the myth that the agency is omnipotent.

“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.”

Shahzad was investigating suspected links between the military and al Qaeda. Human Rights Watch said Shahzad, 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. Shahzad often wrote about al Qaeda and other groups.

‘Pushed to the wall’

Reporters say Shahzad’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.

Shahzad was killed after he wrote a story that claimed al Qaeda attacked a naval base in Karachi last month after negotiations with the military to release two naval officials accused of militant links broke down.

That assault further humiliated the Pakistani military. Some believe that with its loss of credibility after the Bin Laden fiasco, and the naval base siege, the ISI may come under more public scrutiny for its apparent failure to tackle militancy and ease suicide bombings.

“Fewer people believe that the ISI is this powerful agency. People will start asking tougher questions,” said Rifaat Hussain, head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

“They may be more willing to ask why the ISI is tapping the telephones of the opposition when it should be providing more security for the country.”

But equally likely is that journalists will think twice about writing hard-hitting stories after Shahzad’s death.

Others have died in similar circumstances in Pakistan, the world’s most dangerous country for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.

“It is a death. The death of expression,” said Matiullah Jan, a correspondent with Dawn News television. “There is an apprehension in certain quarters that it’s meant to send a shut-up message.”


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Al Qaeda had warned of Pakistan strike
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Published: June 3, 2011

Wreckage of a P-3C Orion aircraft is seen at a major Pakistani naval air base following an attack by militants in Karachi. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

ISLAMABAD: Al Qaeda carried out the brazen attack on PNS Mehran naval air station in Karachi on May 22 after talks failed between the navy and al Qaeda over the release of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al Qaeda links, an Asia Times Online investigation reveals.

Pakistani security forces battled for 15 hours to clear the naval base after it had been stormed by a handful of well-armed militants.

At least 10 people were killed and two United States-made P3-C Orion surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft worth US$36 million each were destroyed before some of the attackers escaped through a cordon of thousands of armed forces.

An official statement placed the number of militants at six, with four killed and two escaping. Unofficial sources, though, claim there were 10 militants with six getting free. Asia Times Online contacts confirm that the attackers were from Ilyas Kashmiri’s 313 Brigade, the operational arm of al Qaeda.

Three attacks on navy buses in which at least nine people were killed last month were warning shots for navy officials to accept al Qaeda’s demands over the detained suspects.

The May 2 killing in Pakistan of Osama bin Laden spurred al Qaeda groups into developing a consensus for the attack in Karachi, in part as revenge for the death of their leader and also to deal a blow to Pakistan’s surveillance capacity against the Indian navy.

The deeper underlying motive, though, was a reaction to massive internal crackdowns on al Qaeda affiliates within the navy.

Volcano of militancy

Several weeks ago, naval intelligence traced an al Qaeda cell operating inside several navy bases in Karachi, the country’s largest city and key port.

“Islamic sentiments are common in the armed forces,” a senior navy official told Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

“We never felt threatened by that. All armed forces around the world, whether American, British or Indian, take some inspiration from religion to motivate their cadre against the enemy. Pakistan came into existence on the two-nation theory that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations and therefore no one can separate Islam and Islamic sentiment from the armed forces of Pakistan,” the official said.

“Nonetheless, we observed an uneasy grouping on different naval bases in Karachi. While nobody can obstruct armed forces personnel for rendering religious rituals or studying Islam, the grouping [we observed] was against the discipline of the armed forces. That was the beginning of an intelligence operation in the navy to check for unscrupulous activities.”

The official explained the grouping was against the leadership of the armed forces and opposed to its nexus with the United States against Islamic militancy. When some messages were intercepted hinting at attacks on visiting American officials, intelligence had good reason to take action and after careful evaluation at least 10 people – mostly from the lower cadre – were arrested in a series of operations.

“That was the beginning of huge trouble,” the official said.

Those arrested were held in a naval intelligence office behind the chief minister’s residence in Karachi, but before proper interrogation could begin, the in-charge of the investigation received direct threats from militants who made it clear they knew where the men were being detained.

The detainees were promptly moved to a safer location, but the threats continued. Officials involved in the case believe the militants feared interrogation would lead to the arrest of more of their loyalists in the navy. The militants therefore made it clear that if those detained were not released, naval installations would be attacked.

It was clear the militants were receiving good inside information as they always knew where the suspects were being detained, indicating sizeable al Qaeda infiltration within the navy’s ranks. A senior-level naval conference was called at which an intelligence official insisted that the matter be handled with great care, otherwise the consequences could be disastrous. Everybody present agreed, and it was decided to open a line of communication with al Qaeda.

Abdul Samad Mansoori, a former student union activist and now part of 313 brigade, who originally hailed from Karachi but now lives in the North Waziristan tribal area was approached and talks begun. Al Qaeda demanded the immediate release of the officials without further interrogation. This was rejected.

The detainees were allowed to speak to their families and were well treated, but officials were desperate to interrogate them fully to get an idea of the strength of al Qaeda’s penetration. The militants were told that once interrogation was completed, the men would be discharged from the service and freed.

Al Qaeda rejected these terms and expressed its displeasure with the attacks on the navy buses in April.

These incidents pointed to more than the one al Qaeda cell intelligence had tracked in the navy. The fear now was that if the problem was not addressed, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply lines could face a new threat. NATO convoys are routinely attacked once they begin the journey from Karachi to Afghanistan; now they could be at risk in Karachi port. Americans who often visit naval facilities in the city would also be in danger.

Therefore, another crackdown was conducted and more people were arrested. Those seized had different ethnic backgrounds. One naval commando came from South Waziristan’s Mehsud tribe and was believed to have received direct instructions from Hakeemullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban). Others were from Punjab province and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.

After Bin Laden was killed by American Navy Seals in Abbottabad, 60 kilometers north of Islamabad, militants decided the time was ripe for major action.

Within a week, insiders at PNS Mehran provided maps, pictures of different exit and entry routes taken in daylight and at night, the location of hangers and details of likely reaction from external security forces.

As a result, the militants were able to enter the heavily guarded facility where one group targeted the aircraft, a second group took on the first strike force and a third finally escaped with the others providing covering fire. Those who stayed behind were killed.

This article featured in Asia Times Online on May 27, 2011 has been republished online with the permission of the publication. The original article can be viewed here.
For more on this issue follow: navyattack


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صحافی سلیم شہزاد قتل کے حقائق:۔پاراچنار کے حقائق منظر عام پر لانے والے صحافی سلیم شہزاد کو اسلام آباد میں شہید کردیا گیا۔صحافی نے اپنے فاٹا پر تقریبا ہر رپورٹ میں پاراچنار کے حقائق کا زکر کیا تھا۔جب کہ لنک میں دئیے ہوئے رپورٹ میں پاراچنار فسادات میں حقانی گروپ کے شمولیت کا زکر کیاتھا۔یاد رہے کہ اس سے پہلے ۲۰۰۸
میں پشاور میں نیوز ون ٹی وی کے بیوروچیف کامل مشہدی کو اس رپورٹ کے چند منٹ بعد شہید کردیا گیا تھا۔جب اس نے بیت االللہ محسود کا طالبان سمیت پاراچنار پر حملے کے لئیے بگن لوئر کرم میں موجودگی کی خبر بریک کی تھی۔



Martyred Journalist Saleem Shahzad Reports Links Exposing PARACHINAR
state Terrorisim
Sirajuddin Haqqani has acquired huge influence over the past few years in the Afghan provinces of Ghazni, Khost, Paktia and Paktika. He has also fully supported attacks co-ordinated and facilitated by al-Qaeda, such as the ones in Kabul and on Bagram air base this year.

While he travels extensively in Afghanistan, North Waziristan is still his strategic backyard, and here he is completely dependent on al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-inspired groups. For this reason he contributed to the anti-Shi'ite attacks in Kurram Agency in 2007 and he has sent his men to support local Sunni militias. During the military offensive in 2009 against militants in South Waziristan, Sirajuddin Haqqani provided sanctuary to escaping Mehsud militants
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LF30Df03.html




ISLAMABAD / GUJRAT: Tuesday added another chapter to the bloody history of Pakistan’s press freedom record when the body of missing journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad was found.
It was confirmed by the capital police as well as its counterparts in Mandi Bahauddin that a body buried in a local graveyard at Mandi Bahauddin was suspected to be that of Shahzad, an Islamabad-based journalist who had gone missing from the capital on Sunday evening. He had disappeared en route to a news channel’s office in Sector F-6 from his house in F-8/4.
Shahzad, who was the bureau chief for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times, an online publication, and the Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI) and had worked for the Dawn Media Group’s evening newspaper Star for over a decade, was known for his investigative reporting on militancy and Al Qaeda. He had moved to Islamabad after Star closed down in 2007.
His book, “Inside Al-Qaeda & the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11”, had recently been published.
After his disappearance, the Human Rights Watch alleged that Shahzad had been picked up by the ISI and that the intelligence agency had threatened him last year as well when he had reported on the quiet release of Mullah Baradar, an aide to Mullah Omar, who had been captured by Pakistan earlier.
Ali Dayan, Pakistan researcher for HRW, also made public an email that Shahzad had sent then with the instructions to make it public in case something happened to him. The email provided Shahzad’s account of a meeting he held with two ISI officials on October 17, 2010.
After he disappeared on Sunday, there were allegations that he had been picked up by the ISI because of his recent story on the PNS Mehran base attack. Shahzad had reported that the attack took place after the Navy identified and interrogated a few of its lower-level officers for their ties with Al Qaeda.
Reporters without Borders also released a statement after Shahzad’s death was confirmed which said: “Experienced journalists in Islamabad said they suspected that Shahzad was kidnapped and executed by the military intelligence agency known as the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)…
“Sources close to Shahzad said he had reported getting several warnings from the security agencies in the past… This would tend to support the theory that he was kidnapped and killed in connection with his coverage of the attack on the naval base.”
On Tuesday it came to light that the body found at Head Rasul a day earlier was of the missing journalist. He was identified from the photos taken of the corpse on Tuesday during the postmortem at District Headquarters Hospital Mandi Bahauddin.
The police force’s efficiency knew no bounds on Tuesday. First the police force of Sara-i-Alamgir found an abandoned Toyota Corolla, which belonged to Shahzad, near the Upper Jhelum Canal. The vehicle, which had gone missing along with the journalist, had a broken window and a damaged ignition switch, hinting at car theft.
The police also found two CNICs and press cards, as well as other documents pertaining to Shahzad. They then contacted the Margalla police in Islamabad.
Once the police from Islamabad examined the car and determined its owner’s identity, they were informed by their counterparts that the Mandi Bahauddin police had found a body a day earlier.
According to the details collected by Dawn, some passersby spotted a corpse in the water on Monday. The Head Rasul police shifted the body to the DHQ.
Unusually quickly for Pakistani police, all legal formalities were completed, the autopsy was conducted on the unidentified body and it was handed over to Edhi Centre for burial. It was interred at the local graveyard temporarily.
According to the police, the postmortem report said that Shahzad had been subjected to severe torture. The report said he had 15 major injuries including fractured ribs and deep wounds on the abdomen.
It was also evident that the journalist’s hands and feet had been tied as there were marks on his wrists and ankles. However, his hands and feet were not tied when he was found.
The police said that the victim had been killed in the early hours of Monday.
The Mandi Bahauddin police told the capital police that there was no mortuary at the DHQ and Edhi Centre to keep the body; hence the pace at which it was buried.
The family, which was contacted by the capital police, identified him from the photographs, clothes and cards. Shahzad leaves behind a widow and three children.
Since the reports were first aired about the car and the body, condemnations had been pouring in from far and wide.
Human rights organisations, journalists and government officials were quick to condemn the incident. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also ordered an immediate inquiry into the kidnapping and murder.



Haqani group & Shaheed Saleem Shahzad

LOOK at the Dawn's Report:

After his disappearance, the Human Rights Watch alleged that Shahzad had been picked up by the ISI and that the intelligence agency had threatened him last year as well when he had reported on the quiet release of Mullah Baradar, an aide to Mullah Omar, who had been captured by Pakistan earlier.

Ali Dayan, Pakistan researcher for HRW, also made public an email that Shahzad had sent then with the instructions to make it public in case something happened to him. The email provided Shahzad’s account of a meeting he held with two ISI officials on October 17, 2010

It is the prime duty of EVERY INTELLIGENCE AGENCY in the world to keep peace and harmony in its country, eridicate the miscreants and protect it's citizens. Very sadly, very unfortunately, ISI is THE ONLY AGENCY in the whole world, which creates havoc in the country, supports the terrorists and kills its own citizens

For the last 10 years, Pakistan is turned into a burning hell by the Taliban terrorists and ISI still protects them and declares Taliban as "Our strategic assests.

Raw, Mosad and CIA kidnaps and kills its enemies all over the world, while ISI kidnaps and kills its own innocent citizens. It has become now the biggest problem for Pakistan and Pakistanis.



ASMA JAHANGIR SPEAKS OUT

A must watch video. Hats off to Asma Jehangir who has spoken so boldly -Urdu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlbSyaCH3C8



Syed Saleem Shahzad: silencing the truth-seekers-English

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MF02Df08.html



Explosive mood in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LF30Df03.html



کراچی: معذور شیعہ نوجوان منتظر امام عدالتی حکم پر اسپتال داخل
http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=6&id=245046
بے گناہ شیعہ نوجوانوں کوفوری رہا کیاجائے
http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=6&id=245045

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Saleem Shahzad’s cell phone record erased
By Asad Kharal
Published: June 7, 2011

In this photo taken on November 28, 2006, Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad talks on his cell phone. PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE:

The record of slain journalist Saleem Shahzad’s cell phone activity has been mysteriously erased – with the network log of the 18 days leading up to his abduction and murder being wiped clean from the system.

According to data obtained by The Express Tribune, the “last” call made by Shahzad was back on May 12.

Saleem Shahzad worked for Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and Italian news agency Andkronos International. The police are yet to register an abduction-cum-murder case against Shahzad’s killers.

The case is starting to look a lot like that of Umer Cheema, another journalist who was kidnapped and tortured recently and whose cell phone data was also deleted from the system in a similar manner.

Hamza Ameer, the brother-in-law of the slain journalist, found Saleem Shahzad’s mobile phone switched off when he tried to contact him at 5:42 pm on May 29.

According to data obtained by The Express Tribune, Shahzad made his “last” call on May 12 near a cell phone tower installed atop a bank in Islamabad’s Blue Area, Plot No94, Deen Pewalian in Islamabad.

Shahzad, according to cell data, was in Islamabad between May 1 and 8:27 pm on May 12.

The “second last” call received by Shahzad was made by his wife and it lasted slightly over a minute (the call was made between 12:16:05 and 12:17:19).

His wife’s “last” call received by Shahzad lasted just 13 seconds (made between 7:51:16 and 7:51:29).

Furthermore, Hamza Ameer said that police are yet to register a proper case of abduction and murder of Saleem Shahzad.

He said that he had filed a complaint after Saleem Shahzad had gone missing (The record shows the complaint No43 was filed at 2:20 am on Monday, May 30).

The complaint reads: “My brother in-law Syed Saleem Shahzad, the bureau chief of Asia Times Online, left today at 5:30 pm to appear in an interview on Dunya News (television), but since that time he has been missing. I request you to please probe the matter and search for him.”

Later, the Margalla police station had converted the same complaint into an FIR, without applying the section for abduction-cum-murder, Hamza Ameer said.

Another FIR was also registered in Mandi Bahauddin and Shahzad’s autopsy was also conducted in the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in the same town on May 30.

The IGP on the direction of the CM Punjab has issued a notification regarding constitution of three-member committee headed by DIG Shoaib Dastgeer with a mandate to probe the matter.

DIG Shoaib told The Express Tribune that the investigators would meet the heirs of the slain journalist. He said that statements of eyewitnesses, if there are any, will also be recorded.

He said that because the autopsy of dead body of slain journalist had been conducted in Islamabad so according to law the murder’s section of 302 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) will be added by the Margala police station where the FIR was first registered. He claimed that the team would finalise its report quickly.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2011.

Correction, June 7, 2011

Due to an editing error, the original article incorrectly cited CPRC as the source for section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

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Saleem Shahzad Case: As family struggles, authorities drag their feet
By Asad Kharal
Published: June 9, 2011

In this photo taken on November 28, 2006, Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad talks on his cell phone. PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE:

With events continuously conspiring against them, the family of slain journalist Saleem Shahzad has been forced to move out of their rented residence in Islamabad and relocate to Karachi, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Shahzad’s widow and their three children Fahad Saleem, 13, Amna Saleem, 10, and Rehman Shah, seven, were forced to give up their residence because they could no longer afford the rent. Meanwhile, to make matters worse, ten days after his death, the Islamabad and Punjab police still remain undecided on registering further cases of abduction and murder to the case of the slain journalist.

While the family of the journalist, who continued his quest to uncover the truth despite threats to his life, in dire straits, the authorities are yet to contact the family for compensation and legal assistance.

Shahzad owned three bank accounts, none of which can be accessed by his widow yet, since the authorities have failed to provide her with a successor certificate.

Sub Inspector Shafiq Ahmed at the Islamabad police station, investigation officer for the case Moharrar and an official of the records room at the said police station Naveed allegedly remained uncooperative in terms of receiving the application/ supplementary statement for adding a murder charge (under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code) to it.

Only after two lawyers intervened in the matter did the investigation officer “reluctantly” receive the application, Hamza Ameer, Shahzad’s brother-in-law told The Express Tribune.

The application submitted by complainant Hamza Ameer, Shahzad’s brother-in-law, addressed to the Margalla police station SHO, requested that a murder charge be included in the complaint, as it was initially lodged under Section 365 of the PPC, which was when Shahzad had gone missing.

According to Ameer, the investigation officer said that the case file had been referred to the legal branch for its opinion regarding whether a murder charge should be added at the Margalla police station where the complaint was first filed when Shahzad went missing, or at the Mandi Bahauddin police station where the body was recovered and a case was registered against unidentified persons for torturing a person to death.

Meanwhile, the investigation officer sub inspector Ahmed said that because the eyewitnesses, police officials, and medical officers belonged to Mandi Bahauddin, and since a separate murder case had been registered at the Saddar Mandi Bahauddin police station, it was likely that the murder charge would not be included at the Margalla police station. However, he added that the final decision would be taken after seeking legal opinion.

A three-member committee headed by DIG Shoaib Dastageer, along with other committee members visited Shahzad’s house in Islamabad to record Ameer’s statement.

The team questioned Ameer about whether Shahzad had an enmity with any individual, institution, or organisation, and later said that because the case was still in the initial stage, they could not blame any particular institution, organisation or individual without concrete evidence.

Ameer told the committee that Shahzad had no personal enmities, and that his reporting was the probable cause for his death.

The chief minister had directed the IGP to constitute a three-member committee with Dastageer in charge and submit a report to him within three days. However, ten days into Shahzad’s murder, the committee is yet to hand over its report.

When asked about it, DIG Dastageer said that the deadline for the probe was unimportant, and starting the probe in order for the investigation to reach a logical end was the bigger issue.

Ameer said that aside from Interior Minister Rehman Malik no other government functionary had contacted Shahzad’s family, nor had anyone announced a compensation for the aggrieved widow and children.

The future of Shahzad’s widow and his children remains uncertain as with each passing day they realise they have no one to turn to.

According to Ameer, when Malik visited the slain journalist’s house, he assured the family that the government would bear all expenses in terms of flying Shahzad’s body out from Islamabad to Karachi. Malik had told the family that the government would take on the responsibility of paying for the children’s education, cover the family’s health expenses and provide them with other basic necessities. However, with each passing day, the interior minister’s promises appear hollower, Ameer said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2011.