31 May 2011
Saleem Shahzad
Other non-natural
A Pakistani journalist who went missing two days ago from the capital Islamabad was found dead in eastern Pakistan.
Police said there were signs of torture on the body of the reporter, Saleem Shahzad, who worked for Hong-Kong based online Asia Times and Italian news agency Adnkronos International. Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan representative for Human Rights Watch, said Shahzad had told him that he was under threat by Pakistan's military intelligence agency. "He told me he was being followed and that he is getting threatening telephone calls and that he is under intelligence surveillance," he told Reuters.
"We can't say for sure who has killed Saleem Shahzad. But what we can say for sure is that Saleem Shahzad was under serious threat from the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and Human Rights watch has every reason to believe that that threat was credible." Reports said Saleem Shahzad had been investigating alleged links between Al Qaida and the Pakistani military.
