Syed Saleem Shahzad
Encyclopedia
Syed Saleem Shahzad was a Pakistani investigative journalist who wrote widely for leading European and Asian media. He served as the Pakistan
Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online
(Hong Kong) and Italian news agency Adnkronos
(AKI). He was found dead in a canal in North-east Pakistan, showing signs of torture, two days after he was kidnapped. Human Rights Watch
(HRW) accused the Pakistan intelligence services of being behind his killing, and US government officials later announced that they had "reliable and conclusive" intelligence that this was the case. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) vehemently denied the accusations and called them "totally unfounded."
on November 3, 1970. He was the son of Syed Shamim Akhtar and Marifa Meraj Fatima, herself the great-granddaughter of Anwari Begum (sister of Hakim Syed Karam Husain
and daughter of Qazi Mir Imdad Ali
). Shahzad's parents arrived from India after Partition
.. Shahzad was the elder brother of Syed Waseem Fawad and Mariam Shamim/Imran.
Shahzad was a permenant resident of Karachi. Shahzad had shifted to Islamabad in the middle of year 2009; which was the need of his assignments.
Shahzad completed Matriculation from Grand Folk's English School, Karachi. Shahzad earned a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from Government National College1 and Master of Arts in International Relations from Karachi University. While in college, Shahzad was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami
's student wing but later stopped supporting the group as too radical.
Shahzad was married to Anita Ameer (Non Syed) and the couple had three children including two sons and one daughter: Syed Fahad Saleem (son), Amna Saleem (daughter) and Syed Rahman Shah (son).
and Iraq
. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda
were the regular topics of his writing. He was an international journalist who travelled widely in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. He also wrote for Le Monde Diplomatique
(France), La Stampa
(Italy) and Dawn
(Pakistan). He was South Asia Correspondent for Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI). His opinion pieces appeared in the Qatari-based Islamonline.net and Boston Review
.
He regularly interviewed Islamist militants, including Al-Qaeda members. Shahzad introduced the world to hitherto unknown Al-Qaeda figures, including Sheikh Essa. He had interviewed several leading militants long before they became internationally known, including Sirajuddin Haqqani
and Qari Ziaur Rahman. He also interviewed Ilyas Kashmiri
shortly after Ilyas was appointed chief of Al-Qaeda’s military committee.
His last book Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11, was published shortly before his death.
Shahzad's work was regularly reproduced in Pakistani English dailies including the Daily Times, the Nation and The Post, and in Urdu
newspapers such as Daily Mashriq
and Aaj Daily
. His articles were reproduced in many English dailies in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, as well as in local-language dailies. His work was often quoted in the US, Canadian and Indian press.
Saleem was an associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit of the department of Peace Studies of the University of Bradford
. In November 2006 he was held in Taliban captivity in the Helmand Province
of Afghanistan for a few days. He wrote a detailed account of his days in captivity and time he spent with the Taliban in a series, "In the Land of the Taliban" published in Asia Times Online
.
In June 2011 Shahzad was awarded the Ischia International Journalism Award
.
Just prior to his disappearance in May 2011, the journalist wrote in the Asia Times Online that al-Qaeda carried out the PNS Mehran attack
after negotiations with the Navy for the release of officials, suspected of al-Qaeda links, had failed. According to Shahzad, the attackers were all from Ilyas Kashmiri's 313 Brigade of al-Qaeda.
's capture. Afterwards he wrote to Human Rights Watch
(HRW) predicting that he might be detained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) agency. According to a researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ali Dayan Hasan
, he was "fairly sure that sooner or later something was going to happen". In an email passed to HRW, Shahzad informed Hasan that he was threatened by an ISI official who said: "I must give you a favor. We have recently arrested a terrorist and recovered a lot of data, diaries and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know." In a June 2011 opinion piece for The News International
, journalist Ahmed Quraishi stated the "agency’s version is very straightforward: they met Shahzad at a registered government office about a story he did and asked him either to confirm his sources or retract the story because it damaged Pakistani interests." Nine days prior to his disappearance, Shahzad met with American journalist Dexter Filkins
and told him, "Look, I'm in danger... I've got to get out of Pakistan."
Shahzad disappeared on the evening of 29 May 2011 in Islamabad. He reportedly left his home around 5:30 pm local time that evening to take part in a TV show scheduled for 6:00 pm, but at 5:42 pm his cell phone was switched off and he failed to arrive at the television bureau. A complaint was lodged with the police the following morning. Elsewhere that morning, a laborer found his body, still wearing a suit, a tie and shoes, in the Upper Jhelum Canal while the zamindar
of an upstream village notified police of an abandoned Toyota Corolla that later proved to be Shahzad's.
On the next day, his family members from Islamabad confirmed that he was dead, with police stating that his body had been found in a canal in Mandi Bahauddin
district and his car found at Sarai Alamgir in Pakistan's northern Gujrat District
, some 150 km (93.2 mi) south-east of the capital. His car was found about 10 km (six miles) away.
Pakistani Prime Minister
Yousaf Raza Gillani
ordered an immediate inquiry into the kidnapping and murder, and on 3 June Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik
duly announced an investigative judicial commission headed by a Supreme Court
justice. Bowing to unprecedented demonstrations from Pakistani media, PM Gilani signed an order in the early morning hours of June 18, 2011 establishing a judicial commission, lead by Justice Main Saqib Nisar, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Shazad's death. The commission was to release its findings within six weeks.
The New York Times reported on 4 July 2011 that the Obama administration had "reliable and conclusive" intelligence that implicated senior officials of the ISI in directing the death of Shahzad. Subsequently Admiral Michael Mullen
stated that he believed that Shahzad's killing was "sanctioned by the [Pakistani] government" but added that he did not have a "string of evidence" linking the ISI. The Pakistani state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan
, said the soon-to-retire Mullen's charge was "extremely irresponsible." The Associated Press
report of the APP comment went on to say:
The ISI strongly denied any involvement in Shahzad's death. Two days after his body as found, the intelligence agency released an official statement that described the death as "unfortunate and tragic" while maintaining that "baseless accusations against the country’s sensitive agencies for their alleged involvement in Shahzad’s murder are totally unfounded."
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...
(Hong Kong) and Italian news agency Adnkronos
Adnkronos
-History:It was established in 1963 by a merger of two agencies, Kronos and Agenzia Di Notizie .The agency is owned by Giuseppe Marra Communications....
(AKI). He was found dead in a canal in North-east Pakistan, showing signs of torture, two days after he was kidnapped. Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
(HRW) accused the Pakistan intelligence services of being behind his killing, and US government officials later announced that they had "reliable and conclusive" intelligence that this was the case. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI) vehemently denied the accusations and called them "totally unfounded."
Family and background
Syed Saleem Shahzad was born in KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
on November 3, 1970. He was the son of Syed Shamim Akhtar and Marifa Meraj Fatima, herself the great-granddaughter of Anwari Begum (sister of Hakim Syed Karam Husain
Hakim Syed Karam Husain
Hakim Syed Muhammad Karam Hussain was a prominent Unani practitioner from Tijara, Alwar.-Education:After initial education from his hometown ‘Tijara’, he moved to Meerut at the age of 14 years. In Meerut, he took expertise, knowledge and proficiency on ‘Unani Tibb’ from two leading practitioners...
and daughter of Qazi Mir Imdad Ali
Qazi Mir Imdad Ali
Qazi Mir Imdad Ali was Military officer during Bhonsle Dynasty in 1835 at Nagpur.-Biography:Mir Imdad Ali was an inherited Qazi by profession from Sakras, District Gurgaon . He was merely 5 years when his father Syed Mohammad Ashraf was assassinated in 1814 by Meo Community at Sakras...
). Shahzad's parents arrived from India after Partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
.. Shahzad was the elder brother of Syed Waseem Fawad and Mariam Shamim/Imran.
Shahzad was a permenant resident of Karachi. Shahzad had shifted to Islamabad in the middle of year 2009; which was the need of his assignments.
Shahzad completed Matriculation from Grand Folk's English School, Karachi. Shahzad earned a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from Government National College1 and Master of Arts in International Relations from Karachi University. While in college, Shahzad was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
's student wing but later stopped supporting the group as too radical.
Shahzad was married to Anita Ameer (Non Syed) and the couple had three children including two sons and one daughter: Syed Fahad Saleem (son), Amna Saleem (daughter) and Syed Rahman Shah (son).
Career
Syed Saleem Shahzad covered a variety of topics through his career, including global security issues, Pakistani armed forces, Islamic movements, and Muslim resistance movements in LebanonLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
were the regular topics of his writing. He was an international journalist who travelled widely in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. He also wrote for Le Monde Diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
(France), La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
(Italy) and Dawn
Dawn (newspaper)
Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...
(Pakistan). He was South Asia Correspondent for Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI). His opinion pieces appeared in the Qatari-based Islamonline.net and Boston Review
Boston Review
Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
.
He regularly interviewed Islamist militants, including Al-Qaeda members. Shahzad introduced the world to hitherto unknown Al-Qaeda figures, including Sheikh Essa. He had interviewed several leading militants long before they became internationally known, including Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin "Siraj" Haqqani is a Pashtun warlord and military leader who fights against American and coalition forces from his base within North Waziristan in Pakistan, where it is claimed he provides shelter to Al Qaeda operatives...
and Qari Ziaur Rahman. He also interviewed Ilyas Kashmiri
Ilyas Kashmiri (militant)
Ilyas Kashmiri, also referred to as Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri and Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri , was a senior al-Qaeda member and leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami He was also connected with the Soviet-Afghan war, the Kashmir conflict and attacks against India, Pakistan and the United States...
shortly after Ilyas was appointed chief of Al-Qaeda’s military committee.
His last book Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11, was published shortly before his death.
Shahzad's work was regularly reproduced in Pakistani English dailies including the Daily Times, the Nation and The Post, and in Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
newspapers such as Daily Mashriq
Daily Mashriq
Mashriq is an Urdu daily newspaper in Pakistan published from Peshawar, provincial headquarter of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa....
and Aaj Daily
Aaj Daily
AAJ is an Urdu language newspaper simultaneously being published from Peshawar, Islamabad and Abbottabad in Pakistan since 1989.*The newspaper has gained widespread popularity due to the general belief that it has an impartial approach towards the happenings in the province and in the country...
. His articles were reproduced in many English dailies in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, as well as in local-language dailies. His work was often quoted in the US, Canadian and Indian press.
Saleem was an associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit of the department of Peace Studies of the University of Bradford
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...
. In November 2006 he was held in Taliban captivity in the Helmand Province
Helmand Province
Helmand is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Lashkar Gah. The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region, providing water for irrigation....
of Afghanistan for a few days. He wrote a detailed account of his days in captivity and time he spent with the Taliban in a series, "In the Land of the Taliban" published in Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...
.
In June 2011 Shahzad was awarded the Ischia International Journalism Award
Ischia International Journalism Award
The Ischia International Journalism Award is one of the most important Italian journalism awards. It is organized under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, the Regione Campania, the Province of Naples, the National Federation of the Italian Press and the Order of...
.
Just prior to his disappearance in May 2011, the journalist wrote in the Asia Times Online that al-Qaeda carried out the PNS Mehran attack
PNS Mehran attack
The PNS Mehran attack was a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack/shooting that took place on 22 May 2011, at PNS Mehran, the headquarter of the Pakistan Navy's Naval Air Arm and the most populous Pakistani military installation, located near the PAF's Faisal Air Force Base of Karachi, Sindh...
after negotiations with the Navy for the release of officials, suspected of al-Qaeda links, had failed. According to Shahzad, the attackers were all from Ilyas Kashmiri's 313 Brigade of al-Qaeda.
Death
According to friends and colleagues, the ISI warned the journalist at least three times prior to his death. In October 2010, Shahzad was summoned to ISI headquarters the day after publishing a sensitive article on Abdul Ghani BaradarAbdul Ghani Baradar
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar , also called Mullah Baradar Akhund or Mullah Brother, is a co-founder of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and an Afghan Taliban leader. The deputy of Mullah Mohammed Omar and leader of the militant Quetta Shura in Pakistan, Baradar was largely seen as the de facto...
's capture. Afterwards he wrote to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
(HRW) predicting that he might be detained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI) agency. According to a researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ali Dayan Hasan
Ali Dayan Hasan
Ali Dayan Hasan is a Pakistani human rights activist. He is the head of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan. He played a key role in investigating the brutal murder of Syed Saleem Shahzad....
, he was "fairly sure that sooner or later something was going to happen". In an email passed to HRW, Shahzad informed Hasan that he was threatened by an ISI official who said: "I must give you a favor. We have recently arrested a terrorist and recovered a lot of data, diaries and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know." In a June 2011 opinion piece for The News International
The News International
The News International , published in tabloid size, is the largest English language newspaper in Pakistan. The News has an ABC certified circulation of 140,000. It is published from Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad...
, journalist Ahmed Quraishi stated the "agency’s version is very straightforward: they met Shahzad at a registered government office about a story he did and asked him either to confirm his sources or retract the story because it damaged Pakistani interests." Nine days prior to his disappearance, Shahzad met with American journalist Dexter Filkins
Dexter Filkins
Dexter Price Filkins is an American journalist known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for The New York Times. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his dispatches from Afghanistan, and he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 as part of a team of New York Times...
and told him, "Look, I'm in danger... I've got to get out of Pakistan."
Shahzad disappeared on the evening of 29 May 2011 in Islamabad. He reportedly left his home around 5:30 pm local time that evening to take part in a TV show scheduled for 6:00 pm, but at 5:42 pm his cell phone was switched off and he failed to arrive at the television bureau. A complaint was lodged with the police the following morning. Elsewhere that morning, a laborer found his body, still wearing a suit, a tie and shoes, in the Upper Jhelum Canal while the zamindar
Zamindar
A Zamindar or zemindar , was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and ruled over and taxed the bhikaaris who lived on batavaslam. Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja , Raja , Nawab , and Mirza , Chowdhury , among others...
of an upstream village notified police of an abandoned Toyota Corolla that later proved to be Shahzad's.
On the next day, his family members from Islamabad confirmed that he was dead, with police stating that his body had been found in a canal in Mandi Bahauddin
Mandi Bahauddin
Mandi Bahauddin is the capital of Mandi Bahauddin District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The town is some 220 metres above the sea level and is situated in upper Punjab, between the rivers Jhelum and Chenab . Mandi Bahauddin city is situated some 50 km from the M2 - Motorway of...
district and his car found at Sarai Alamgir in Pakistan's northern Gujrat District
Gujrat District
Gujrat is a district of Punjab Province in Pakistan. It is an ancient district located in between two famous rivers, the Jhelum and Chenab. Because of its proximity with the rivers the land is good for cultivation with rice and sugar cane as main crops...
, some 150 km (93.2 mi) south-east of the capital. His car was found about 10 km (six miles) away.
Pakistani Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousuf Raza Gilani is the current prime minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was nominated as Prime Minister by the PPP, with the support of its coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League , Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, on 22 March 2008...
ordered an immediate inquiry into the kidnapping and murder, and on 3 June Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Rehman Malik
27 April 2009 He has been the interior adviser since 27 March 2008.Senator A. Rehman Malik is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. His Second name is Shetan Malik and he...
duly announced an investigative judicial commission headed by a Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Pakistan
The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...
justice. Bowing to unprecedented demonstrations from Pakistani media, PM Gilani signed an order in the early morning hours of June 18, 2011 establishing a judicial commission, lead by Justice Main Saqib Nisar, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Shazad's death. The commission was to release its findings within six weeks.
The New York Times reported on 4 July 2011 that the Obama administration had "reliable and conclusive" intelligence that implicated senior officials of the ISI in directing the death of Shahzad. Subsequently Admiral Michael Mullen
Michael Mullen
Michael Glenn "Mike" Mullen is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral, who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2011. Mullen previously served as the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations from July 22, 2005 to September 29, 2007...
stated that he believed that Shahzad's killing was "sanctioned by the [Pakistani] government" but added that he did not have a "string of evidence" linking the ISI. The Pakistani state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan
Associated Press of Pakistan
Associated Press of Pakistan is a government-operated national news agency of Pakistan. It is not associated with the Associated Press agency .-Lack of financial resources:...
, said the soon-to-retire Mullen's charge was "extremely irresponsible." The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
report of the APP comment went on to say:
Pakistan was the deadliest country for journalists in 2010, with at least eight killed in the line of duty, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect JournalistsCommittee to Protect JournalistsThe Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
. Six died in suicide attacks, the group said in a report late last year.
Despite the dangers, the media establishment in Pakistan has expanded rapidly over the past decade, and reporters here operate with freedoms denied in most developing countries. Still, many privately admit to getting occasional pressure from security and intelligence officials.
The ISI strongly denied any involvement in Shahzad's death. Two days after his body as found, the intelligence agency released an official statement that described the death as "unfortunate and tragic" while maintaining that "baseless accusations against the country’s sensitive agencies for their alleged involvement in Shahzad’s murder are totally unfounded."