Mystery surrounding scribe killing deepens in Pak

The mystery surrounding the murder of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad deepened on Wednesday after it emerged that police had hurriedly buried his body after finding it in a canal in Punjab province on Monday.

Following pressure from Shahzad's family, a judge ordered the exhumation of the body.

Shahzad was reported missing while driving from his home to a TV station in the heart of Islamabad on Sunday evening, two days after he authored an article in which he alleged that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the Pakistan Navy.

His body, bearing marks of torture, was found entangled in a net in a canal in Mandi Bahauddin district, 200km from Lahore, on Monday.

Local police sent the body to a state-run hospital for an autopsy and hurriedly buried it, saying it was "unidentified" despite finding a press identity card.

Maulvi Muhammad Arshad, who prepared the body for burial, told Geo News channel today that two police officials pressured him to quickly bathe the body and bury it.

Following pressure from Shahzad's family, a judge ordered the exhumation of the body.

Footage on television showed the body being dug out of the grave late last night.

"Unusually quickly for Pakistani police, all legal formalities were completed, the autopsy was conducted on the unidentified body and it was handed over to Edhi Centre for burial," the Dawn newspaper reported.

He was buried in Karachi today after his body was brought from Islamabad. Hundreds of mourners, including fellow scribes attended the funeral of the slain journalist.

Though Shahzad's body was found in Mandi Bahauddin on Monday, his car was found 35 km away at Sarai Alamghir near Jhelum city yesterday.

The vehicle had a broken window and a damaged ignition switch, indicating that someone had tampered with it.

Police said Shahzad was apparently killed early on Monday. It was evident that his hands and feet were tied as there were marks on his wrists and ankles.

However, his hands and feet were not tied when he was found. The autopsy report said Shahzad was subjected to severe torture though there were no bullet wounds.

The report said the possible cause of death was a blow to the chest. "Some 15 major injuries, including fractured ribs and deep wounds on the abdomen, have been found," the report said.

A second autopsy was conducted at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences by a special board before the body was sent to Karachi for burial.

Journalists' organisations and rights groups have alleged that Shahzad had been picked up by the ISI because of his recent report that a naval airbase in Karachi was attacked by terrorists following the failure of secret talks between Al-Qaeda and the Pakistan Navy for the release of some naval personnel arrested for alleged terror links.

Shahzad’s brother Waseem Fawad said his sibling was a patriotic Pakistani and he never indulged in yellow journalism.

He said: "If writing the truth is a crime, then we will continue committing this sin."

No government representatives attended Shahzad's funeral in Karachi on Wednesday.