Pakistani investigative journalist was tortured to death: police

Grief-stricken relatives demanded Wednesday that Pakistan investigate the torture and murder of an investigative journalist whose disappearance was blamed on the country’s shadowy intelligence services.

Saleem Shahzad, a 40-year-old father of three, vanished after leaving home in Islamabad to appear on a television talk show, two days after writing an article about links between rogue elements of the navy and al-Qaida.

Shahzad carved out a career writing about the plethora of Islamist militant networks operating in Pakistan, and warned human rights campaigners before his disappearance that he had been threatened by the Inter-Services Intelligence.

…”The cause of death is torture and there are several signs of torture on his body and face,” said Ashok Kumar, one of the doctors who carried out a post-mortem at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Science.

Another doctor told AFP that Shahzad’s lungs and liver had been damaged, that the body was swollen and bore more than 15 signs of having been beaten.

I wonder how the ISI is going to spin this?