I cannot still believe that the Pakistani columnist with Asia Times online, Syed Saleem Shehzad, has died. His body was reportedly recovered from a nalla last week, with signs of severe torture.
I have followed his articles with interest since over ten years ago when 'the war on terror' started. He was a daring journalist, travelling to remote corners of the tribal areas and meeting dangerous terrorists. Here is an Atimes trubutes page.
While I found that many times his interviews with thugs such as Ilyas Kashmiri seemed to end up as propaganda for such people, they also revealed many facts - I infact got to know Kashmiri and many such people from Shehzad's articled, and also interesting small bits of info which we do not get to read elsewhere.
He said in the past that he had received death threats from Pakistani intelligence agencies. Now people with different agendas have begun their smearing, that he may in fact have been killed by some of his terrorist contacts themselves. Some have suggested that both the ISI and the terrorists got together to bump him off.
An account of his death and several theories are discussed by Amir Mir here.
But the theory that he was killed by his terrorist sources, seems odd, considering that he was their trusted source; also, Ilyas Kashmiri is himself now reported to be dead in a drone attack yesterday.
That's an interesting coincidence, because a few years ago when Kashmiri was similarly rumoured to have been killed in a drone attack - it was Shehzad, who revealed this as false, through a kidnap-interview he wrote for AT.
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