Pakistan spy agency denies role in journalist’s death

The ISI operates largely outside of the law and routinely detains suspected militants, political activists, and separatists, without charge. They can be held for months, if not years, in secret prisons. In Baluchistan province, rights activists accuse the agency of killing rebels after abducting them.

Internationally, the agency is best known for its alleged support of Islamist militants, especially those fighting in Afghanistan and India. A trial in Chicago of a man accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks has heard testimony over the last week from an American-Pakistani alleging ISI officers were involved in the plot.

The ISI statement, in the form of a story carried by the state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan, quoted an unidentified intelligence official.

In a statement from New York, Hameed Haroon, president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, hotly rejected the ISI denial. He wrote that Shahzad sent him e-mails detailing his interrogations by Pakistani security, including an implicit threat on his life.

“It is regrettable that some sections of the media have taken upon themselves to use the incident for targeting and maligning the ISI,’’ the official was quoted as saying. The agency’s operatives occasionally brief journalists, but do not normally release information through APP.

Just last week, Shahzad wrote a story about the alleged Al Qaeda infiltration of the navy. He wrote the story after a 17-hour insurgent siege of a naval base in Pakistan’s south. That only compounded the embarrassment of the country’s security agencies.

Within days, Shahzad vanished. His wife contacted Hasan, the rights activist, as Shahzad had asked in case he disappeared. Hasan has said he was told by Pakistani government officials that they believed Shahzad was in ISI custody.