Human Rights Watch stresses Pakistan to redouble its efforts on Saleem Shahzad murder probe

Human Rights Watch stresses Pakistan to redouble its efforts on Saleem Shahzad murder probe

Karachi: (Monday, January 30, 2012) The Human Rights watch (HRW), in a press release here today, has expressed its concerns over the inability of the commission, formed to probe the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad,
in unveiling the names of those involved.

The HRW stressed the government of Pakistan to redouble its efforts to find the culprits responsible of Shahzad’s death and to take them to the task. Reportedly, the deceased journalist was threatened and then killed for unearthing
facts about the militants that had infiltrated the Pakistan army.

Days before his death, Shahzad, who used to work for an Italian news agency and for a Hong-Kong based news site, told the HRW of receiving death threats from intelligence agencies.

Condemning the top secret agency of Pakistan, Asia director at the Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams said, “The commission’s failure to get to the bottom of the Shahzad killing illustrates the ability of the ISI to remain beyond the
reach of Pakistan’s criminal justice system.”

He further added, “The government still has the responsibility to identify those responsible for Shahzad’s death and hold them accountable, no matter where the evidence leads.”

The commission’s failure in coming up with the names of the murders has, instead of closing the case, shown new dimensions for further probe and investigation.

Expressing his remarks while lamenting the commission’s failure, Adams resented the commission’s inability to confront and investigate the top secret agency of the country. He alleged, “The commission appeared fearful of confronting
the ISI over Shahzad’s death.”

To him, “Shahzad had made it clear to Human Rights Watch that should he be killed, the ISI should be considered the principal suspect. He had not indicated he was afraid of being killed by militant groups or anybody else.”

Earlier, the ISI had declared the allegations for involvement in Shahzad’s murder as baseless.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=11150

Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Jan 30 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry