Hamid Mir received e-mail threats like slain reporter

 

ISLAMABAD: The veiled threat received by Geo News anchor Hamid Mir from an intelligence agency’s officials has striking similarities with the e-mail warning received by the slainjournalist Saleem Shahzad prior to his kidnapping and ultimate death.
In his first formal statement from the hospital bed on Thursday, Hamid Mir said a few days ago, officials of an intelligence agency came to his house and told him that Mir’s name was on a hit list along with some other journalists.

“When I asked as to who had prepared the hit list, the men gave no response,” said the star anchor whose statement was read out before the media by his brother Amir Mir.

Hamid Mir said he had told the officials that in the present circumstances, he faced the greatest threat from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and they should convey it to their bosses.

It appears that a similar kind of veiled threat was received by the late Shahzad who was the Pakistan Bureau chief of Asia Times Online, Hong Kong, and Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI).

Shahzad was kidnapped from Islamabad on May 29, 2011 and his body was found floating in a canal near Mandi Bahauddin on May 30 with visible torture marks.

Although, the ISI categorically denied the allegations of its involvement in the murder of Shahzad, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the US government officials pointed fingers at the agency. According to the Judicial Commission on Saleem Shahzad case, the slain journalist received an e-mail from the then ISI’s DG Media Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir months before his murder.

“I must give you a favor. We have recently arrested a terrorist and have recovered 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,” read the e-mail which was conceived by Shahzad as a veiled death threat.

The commission also found that while forwarding this e-mail to his magazine editor and HRW as a reference in case of any untoward incident, Saleem also cc’d this e-mail to Adnan. “The commission thus has reason to believe that these words were indeed uttered by Rear Admiral Adnan and were accordingly perceived by Saleem to be a threat.”

However, in its report, the commission had also clarified that the e-mail could not be considered as “sufficient circumstantial evidence” against the ISI.

“The commission has no reason to discard the perception of Saleem in construing such words as a threat and showing his reaction...However, there is evidence available on record which shows that in the subsequent seven months, Saleem and Admiral Adnan Nazir kept interacting with each other, and the tone of the interaction is absolutely normal, decent, courteous, friendly and cordial, as if no threat was ever given to or perceived by Saleem. This dilutes the effect of the crucial e-mail. This threat, after the lapse of seven months, cannot singularly be taken as a sufficient circumstantial evidence to conclusively hold that ISI is responsible for this incident on that account,” said the report.

Nevertheless, the commission has not ruled out the strong perception in the journalist community that the ISI harasses and intimidates journalists.

During the course of inquiry, the commission recorded the statements of several senior journalists including Hamid Mir, Absar Alam, Imtiaz Alam and all of them complained about Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir.

Although, threats and acts of intimidation are denied by the ISI, “yet from the statements of the above named, the commission cannot hold that their understanding and perception about the threats etc. extended to them are misconceived, simply for the reason that it had been refuted by the ISI official.” When so many senior and respected journalists have come forward to record their perception, noted the commission, that they found certain words, gestures and acts of ISI officials as intimidating and threatening, then it is hard to dismiss it lightly, “merely on account of a bald denial by ISI.”

“Therefore, from the overwhelming material available on record, the commission is convinced that there are sufficient reasons to believe that the agencies, including ISI, have been using coercive and intimidating tactics in dealing with those journalists who antagonise the agency’s interest.”

Finally, the commission noted that the strong perception in journalist community that the ISI has had a motive to kill Saleem Shahzad may hold some weight, but there is no tangible evidence to establish that fact.

It may be noted that various allegations of excesses by the agencies, including ISI, have been leveled by journalists, politicians and others.

Ansar receives e-mail threat

 

ISLAMABAD: Editor Investigations of The News Ansar Abbasi on Saturday received a threatening e-mail message from someone identifying himself as “Khaki Power” and threatening the senior journalist to “Behave” and “weigh the pros and cons” of his words.

Received from “Khaki Power” via the email address “khaki@safe-mail.net”, the message clearly said: “This is not a reminder but a serious suggestion”.The Interior Ministry as well as the FIA Cyber Wing have been formally informed of this threatening message.

The e-mail received at 11:42 am at Abbasi’s official address ansar.abbasi@thenews.com.pk reads: “This is not a reminder, it is a serious suggestion. Behave yourself and weigh the pros and cons of your words. Sometimes its hazardous to bite the hand that once fed it.

“Skeletons can fall out of anyone’s closets miraculously from the heavens and effectively ruin a ‘journalists’ career. And we all have skeletons. Good day.”

It is for the authorities to find out if this message from the unidentified “Khaki Power” has been authored by some frustrated soul unhappy with the work of Ansar Abbasi, by a pawn of the security agencies, by some disgruntled elements within the military establishment or by someone who wants to smear the name of the Pakistan Army.

However, the fact is that this e-mail has been received by Ansar Abbasi within a few days of his writings in The News and Jang where not only he was among the first ones in the media to have disagreed with the recent controversial statement of the Army Chief General Raheel Sharif but had also exposed General (retd) Musharraf and how he had hurt the institution of the Pakistan Army.

Ansar Abbasi had warned that General Raheel’s statement would lead to misunderstandings between the civilian and the military leadership.

He had also observed that the army chief’s statement would be exploited by those elements, including General Musharraf and his men, to fuel the fire and lead the country towards yet another martial law.The senior journalist also differed with the view that General Musharraf’s trial should be treated as the trial of the institution of the Pakistan Army.

Unfortunately, the social media is grossly misused in Pakistan but there is no law to check the crimes and wrongs done through this medium of communication. Although in this case the e-mail and other relevant details have been forwarded to the FIA Cyber Wing, the agency has hardly solved or caught anyone in such a case before.