ISLAMABAD, July 9, (AFP) - Pakistan has warned its cooperation in the US-led war on al-Qaeda was at risk after heavily criticising the top US military officer for suggesting it could have approved a journalist's murder.
The row threatened to further strain relations already damaged by a covert US raid that killed Osama bin Laden two months ago and is the latest sign that cooperation in the war on al-Qaeda and in neighbouring Afghanistan is at risk.
Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad's body was found just outside the capital Islamabad on May 31, bearing marks of torture.
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| Children mourn during the funeral procession of a man killed
in Karachi violence. AFP |
He had complained of being threatened by the intelligence services and his colleagues believe that Inter-Services intelligence (ISI) was responsible for his disappearance, two days earlier, en route to a television studio.
On Monday, the New York Times quoted US officials as saying that the ISI ordered the killing to muzzle criticism after Shahzad wrote about links between rogue elements of the military and al-Qaeda.
Admiral Mike Mullen waded into the fray on Thursday by saying: “I haven't seen anything that would disabuse that report” when asked about media reports that the Pakistani government approved Shahzad's killing.
Nevertheless, when asked if Pakistan's intelligence service had been involved, Mullen said he could not confirm the allegation.
Regardless, the remarks aggravated relations already strained by a covert US raid north of Islamabad in May that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and the killing of two men by a CIA contractor in Lahore in January.
“If someone has given such a statement then it is extremely irresponsible,” Pakistani Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan told a news conference. “The statement by Admiral Mike Mullen regarding Pakistan will create problems and difficulties in the bilateral ties,” she said.
“It will also impact our joint efforts in war against terrorism,” added Awan, refusing to elaborate but saying the foreign ministry would issue another statement. The foreign ministry spokeswoman was not reachable.
In the wake of the bin Laden raid, the United States recalled dozens of military trainers on Pakistan's orders and huge tensions remain over a covert American drone war against militants on the Afghan border.
Pakistan remains the main land route used by the United States to send supplies for the 150,000 foreign troops fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Islamabad set up a judicial commission last month, giving the five-member panel six weeks to investigate the circumstances of Shahzad's murder.
Mullen said he was “concerned” about the killing and suggested that other reporters had suffered a similar fate in the past.
Reporters Without Borders says that 16 journalists have been killed since the start of 2010 in Pakistan, which it ranks 151st out of 178 countries in its press freedom index.
“It's not a way to move ahead. It's a way to continue to quite frankly spiral in the wrong direction,” said Mullen.
The ISI denied any involvement in murdering Shahzad, who worked for an Italian news agency and a Hong Kong-registered news site, despite widespread belief among his colleagues that intelligence agents had picked him up.
Karachi death toll reaches 91; Police given shoot-to-kill orders
KARACHI, July 9 (AFP) - At least 91 people have died in political violence sweeping Karachi, which has led to Pakistani troops being given the power to shoot-to-kill those involved in the unrest, officials said today.
"The death toll in the violence has risen to 91," home ministry spokesman Sharafuddin Memon told AFP.
"More than 100 suspects, many of them with weapons, have been arrested," he said, noting that paramilitary troops were in control and patrolling streets in troubled parts of the southern port city, Pakistan's largest.
Many people who were stranded due to unrest for four days were now going out safely, Memon said.
Police and hospital officials confirmed the toll and arrests.
The unrest has been blamed on loyalists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the dominant local party that represents Pakistanis who migrated from India, and the Awami National Party (ANP) of Pashtuns from the northwest. In the worst incident, gunmen opened fire on two buses on Thursday, killing 12 people, including a six-year-old girl overnight, a security official said.
The latest bout of violence comes just days after the MQM walked out of the federal government led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), a move which some analysts said made it harder for the government to intervene.
The worst affected areas are impoverished, heavily populated neighbourhoods in western Karachi, dotted with construction sites where armed men of different ethnicities have exchanged gunfire. |
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