Indian Journalists Union condemns Shahzad killing

Hyderabad, Jun 1 : The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) today strongly condemned the brutal murder of prominent Pakistani Journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad.The Pakistani journalist went missing in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Sunday and his dead body with marks of torture was found in Punjab province yesterday.In a joint statement, IJU Secretary-General K Sreenivas Reddy, President-elect S N Sinha and Secretary-General-elect Devulapalli Amar said there was strong suspicion that Mr Shahzad was kidnapped, tortured and killed by the notorious Pakistani Spy Agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as he exposed chinks in the Agency and its handling of the recent attack on naval base, PNS Mehran in Karachi.Shahzad, the Pakistani Bureau Chief of the Asia Times Online, was an expert in reporting about terrorists and their activities and in the past, the ISI picked him up and interrogated him on his writings, they said."This was an attack on the freedom of expression in Pakistan and we call upon the journalists' community and all those who cherish the freedom of the press in India to rally round the Pakistani journalists in the fight against the tyranny and attacks on the freedom of the press and the practitioners of journalism," they said.They demanded that the Pakistani authorities should investigate the case thoroughly and bring the killers of the journalists to book, the statement added.
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