Saleem Shahzad has been killed brutally. His tortured dead body has been recovered today. Media and individuals at social networks have started speculating about the possible assassins. Most of the people are pointing fingers at the notorious intelligence agency, ISI. But unsurprisingly our electronic media with its political actors in various TV Talk shows and retired military officers and ex-members of Islamo-fascists organizations, pretending to be journalists and Analysts have  already started perverting the entire narrative.

They are saying that ISI abducts and detains people as intellectuals, political activists and Journalists, they have harassed them, humiliated them and tortured them, but, according to our “independant media” they (ISI) never killed anyone! How conveniently they drew a blank on the role of ISI in FATA and Malakand agency. Journalists and political workers have been abducted and killed in Balochistan repeatedly, but the news from Balochistan goes unnoticed, how handily they blanked it out.

The recent report by Human Rights Watch has revealed that 25 journalists, writers, human rights defenders, students and activists were killed during the first four months of this year in Balochistan. Today Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch was reported saying that  that Syed Saleem Shahzad is detained by the ISI. Here is the  report by the Dailytimes.

Missing journalist in ISI custody, says HRW

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has, through credible sources, learnt that journalist Saleem Shahzad is in custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), HRW’s Pakistan representative Ali Dayan Hasan told Daily Times on Monday.

Dayan remarked that the ISI remained a major human rights abuser in Pakistan and it frequently kept abusing and torturing those journalists it disagreed with. He further said the HRW had previously documented similar cases of abduction and torture on journalists by security agencies.

People close to Shahzad told Daily Times that he was picked up by officers of an intelligence agency who have promised through anonymous calls to release him soon. Shahzad, who was working as bureau chief of the Asia Times Online in Islamabad, was whisked away by unidentified people on Sunday evening when he left his F-8 Sector residence to participate in a television talk show. His mobile phone remained switched off and his car could not be traced.

People close to Shahzad stated that he had received numerous warnings from security agencies for his reporting in the past, adding that his recent reporting on the issue of terrorist attack on PNS Mehran might have become the reason of his abduction.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered against the unidentified kidnappers in the F-8 Sector Police Station.

Jihadi Hamid Mir and Ex-Jamatia Salim Safi have not remembered the abduction and killing of Hayatullah Khan of Tribal Union of Journalists(TUI).  Hayatullah was the first who exposed that United States is using UAV’s in FATA to target Al-Qaeda leadership hiding in safe-houses in Emirate Islami Waziristan;  an autonomous Talibanised state formed with the consensus and mutual agreement of Taliban leadership and Pakistan Army.

Who killed Saleem Shahzad?

If they are telling us that Al-Qaeda or Taliban have killed Saleem Shahzad then it still is a matter of concern for us.  While we have no high hopes or expectations from our security Apparatus, especially when it comes against terrorists dressed as Star Wars characters or the invincible Taliban/Al-Qaeda operatives.  Nonetheless, it is a matter of great concern that they have operated with so much ease in the federal capital by abducting a journalist, torturing him, killing and then dumping him near Islamabad.

Needless to say that the assassination of Saleem Shahzad after OBL debacle and PNS Mehran attacks has brought further embarrassment and criticism for the Inter Services Intelligence.

The manner in which their proxies will try to pervert and distort the narrativehas the hallmarks of typical ISI operation of misleading the public after yet another atrocity!

A fellow LUBP blogger , Dilshad Chandio, in responding to a thread states:

Our ‘dangerous duffers’ are at it again. Circumstances of his abduction and death are clearly a hallmark of their ‘operations.’ When one heard of his abduction yesterday (30th May morning) it was surprising that there was complete blackout on Television. Monday prime time blocked out the news almost competely. Except for the brave Nusrat Javeed no other anchor mentioned anything, there were no tickers and nothing in the news bulletins or reports otherwise. Remember the coverage when the Geo reporter was abducted and killed in Karachi? Double standards amongst journalists for their own compatriots? While some of the paper/channel websites did cover the news yesterday, except for Daily Times none other reported it in their daily editions. Also, tweets today report that when his car was found in the afternoon GEO started running a ticker but then took it off. Dawn meanwhile was the only channel which ran the ticker and continued to do so. Now whom do the channels/papers defer to? Surely not Alqaeda, TTP or blackwater. Only the dangerous duffers. Egg on their faces.

It is highly unlikely that journalist bodies will do anything more than perfunctory protests. They will either be too scared or are on the take from the duffers. So much for the truth coming out in the ‘azaad media.’

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