Saleem Shahzad commission: FIA says Shahzad’s phone records inaccessible

Password of slain journalist’s Blackberry can’t be retrieved, says agency.

ISLAMABAD:

Slain journalist Saleem Shahzad’s phone records could not be accessed as the password to his BlackBerry device cannot be retrieved, according to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Shahid Nadeem Baloch, director of FIA’s cyber crime wing, was testifying on Monday before the five-member judicial commission tasked to probe Shahzad’s murder.

“The foreign cellular company [Shahzad used] will have to be approached formally either by the government or by Shahzad’s family,” Baloch said.

The commission, headed by Justice Saqib Nisar, also recorded the statements of journalists Imtiaz Alam and Qamer Yousafzai. Alam presented a record of journalists killed over the past few years, while journalist Absar Alam has been instructed to submit a written statement.

After the meeting, the commission’s information secretary Taimur Azmat told reporters that the panel has already directed the Islamabad Capital Territory’s inspector-general of police to contact the company to obtain Shahzad’s password.

The commission has also tasked its member Pervaiz Shaukat to approach the cellular company for obtaining the password and data.

Shaukat said that the statements of the medico-legal officer who conducted Shahzad’s autopsy will be recorded on Wednesday.

He said that journalist Najam Sethi had requested the commission to allow him to appear in September but the commission has asked him to record his statement earlier.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th,  2011.