Press Release : TORONTO – June 01, 2011: Baloch Human Rights Council (Canada) expressed deep sorrow over the targeted killing of Prof. Saba Dashtyari in Quetta today. Prof. Dashtyari was shot dead by unknown assailants, allegedly members of the security forces’ death squad, while he was on his way to Balochistan University.
To read more about Saba Dashtiyari : BBC urdu
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan last week, she noted that U.S.- Pakistani relations were at a turning point after the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was up to the Pakistanis, she said, to decide “what kind of country they wish to live in.”
The brutalized body of investigative journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, which turned up outside of Islamabad on May 31, may provide a clue to the answer.
Shahzad disappeared after publishing the first of two promised articles linking elements of the Pakistan navy to al- Qaeda following a deadly May 22 attack on a Karachi naval station. Last fall, after being questioned about a different story by Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Shahzad wrote that he was threatened by the spy agency.
Continue reading Pakistan Leaders Must Make Choice After Clinton’s Warning: View
Osama bin Laden’s death presents retired general with new opportunities for intrigue
by Declan Walsh in Rawalpindi
Of the many dramas to grip Pakistan since the death of Osama bin Laden on 2 May, a cameo appearance by the country’s most notorious spymaster had to be among the most intriguing.
Last week Afghan intelligence put out a story that General Hamid Gul, a retired chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), had been caught shunting the one-eyed Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, between safe houses in Pakistan’s border badlands.
It seemed to make sense. The ISI, which on Tuesday faced angry questions over the death of a journalist who allegedly died in its custody, has long been accused of covertly aiding the Taliban. Gul is Pakistan’s guardian angel of jihad – an outspoken Islamist who supports the Taliban and spends much of his time peddling lurid conspiracy theories on television.
Continue reading Pakistan’s spymaster Hamid Gul: angel of jihad or windbag provocateur?
