According to friends and colleagues, the ISI warned the journalist at least three times prior to his death. Shahzad informed Hasan in an email that he was threatened by an ISI official who had said: "I must give you a favor. We have recently arrested a terrorist and recovered a lot of data, diaries and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know." In a June 2011 opinion piece for
The News International, journalist
Ahmed Quraishi stated the "agency's version is very straightforward: they met Shahzad at a registered government office about a story he did and asked him either to confirm his sources or retract the story because it damaged Pakistani interests." Nine days prior to his disappearance, Shahzad met with American journalist
Dexter Filkins and told him, "Look, I'm in danger... I've got to get out of Pakistan." Elsewhere that morning, a labourer found his body, still wearing a suit, a tie and shoes, in the Upper Jhelum Canal while the
zamindar of an upstream village notified police of an abandoned Toyota Corolla that later proved to be Shahzad's. On the next day, his family members from Islamabad confirmed that he was dead, with police stating that his body had been found in a canal in
Mandi Bahauddin district and his car found at Sarai Alamgir in Pakistan's northern
Gujrat District, some south-east of the capital. His car was found about 10 km (six miles) away. Pakistani Prime Minister
Yusuf Raza Gilani ordered an immediate inquiry into the kidnapping and murder, Bowing to unprecedented demonstrations from Pakistani media, PM Gilani signed an order in the early morning hours of 18 June 2011 establishing a judicial commission, led by Justice Main Saqib Nisar, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Shazad's death. The commission was to release its findings within six weeks.
The New York Times reported on 4 July 2011 that
CIA and
Obama administration officials had "reliable and conclusive" intelligence that implicated senior officials of the ISI in directing the death of Shahzad. Subsequently, Admiral
Michael Mullen stated that he believed that Shahzad's killing was "sanctioned by the [Pakistani] government" but added that he did not have a "string of evidence" linking the ISI. The Pakistani state-run news agency,
Associated Press of Pakistan, said the soon-to-retire Mullen's charge was "extremely irresponsible." The
Associated Press report of the APP comment went on to say: Pakistan was the deadliest country for journalists in 2010, with at least eight killed in the line of duty, according to the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists. Six died in suicide attacks, the group said in a report late last year. Despite the dangers, the media establishment in Pakistan has expanded rapidly over the past decade, and reporters here operate with freedoms denied in most developing countries. Still, many privately admit to getting occasional pressure from security and intelligence officials. The ISI strongly denied any involvement in Shahzad's death. Two days after his body was found, the intelligence agency released an official statement that described the death as "unfortunate and tragic" while maintaining that "baseless accusations against the country's sensitive agencies for their alleged involvement in Shahzad's murder are totally unfounded." The report blamed "various belligerents in the war on terror which included the Pakistani state and non-state actors such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda and foreign actors" but stopped short of blaming any single individual or organisation. HRW alleged that commission's failure to name a suspect demonstrated "the ability of the ISI to remain beyond the reach of Pakistan's criminal justice system." Members of the Media Commission of Pakistan (MCP) and South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) also expressed concerns over the commission's findings and suggested parliamentary oversight of the ISI. ==See also==