[Emirates 24/7] US officials believe Pakistain's spy agency was behind the killing of a Pak journalist who reported that hard boyz had infiltrated the military, the New York Times...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported Monday.
The newspaper quoted two bigwigs as saying that intelligence showed that senior members of Pakistain's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency ordered the killing of Saleem Shahzad, 40, to muzzle criticism.
The report was likely to further raise tensions between the uneasy allies following the US commando raid north of Islamabad in May that killed Al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden
... who has made the transition back to dust...
and was carried out without Pakistain's knowledge.
One of the US officials quoted by the Times described the actions of the ISI -- which has historic ties to Islamist hard boyz in neighboring Afghanistan and disputed Kashmire -- as "barbaric and unacceptable."
It quoted another bigwig as saying: "Every indication is that this was a deliberate, assassination that was most likely meant to send shock waves through Pakistain's journalist community and civil society."
The ISI has denied as "baseless" allegations that it was involved in the murder of Shahzad.
The news hound, who worked for an Italian news agency and a Hong Kong-registered news site, went missing en route to a television talk show and his body was found last week south of the capital, bearing marks of torture.
A senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
, Ali Dayan Hasan, said that the 40-year-old had recently complained of threats from the ISI, adding: "In the past the ISI has been involved in similar incidents."
Shahzad disappeared two days after writing an investigative report in Asia Times Online saying Al-Qaeda carried out a recent attack on a naval air base to avenge the arrest of naval officials held on suspicion of Al-Qaeda links.
An ISI official said last week that Shahzad's "unfortunate and tragic" death was a "source of concern for the entire nation" but "should not be used to target and malign the country's security agencies".
The government has ordered an inquiry into the kidnapping and murder, pledging that the culprits would be brought to justice, but angry journalists say past investigations into killings of journalists have come to nothing.