Hitting back : Military launches tirade against rights body

Says HRW statement ‘extremely derogatory, biased and contradictory’.

ISLAMABAD:

The military unleashed a tirade against the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday which accused its spies of acting like a state within a state.

On January 30, HRW condemned the impunity of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) over the murder of journalist, Saleem Shahzad, who was killed after writing about links between al Qaeda and rogue elements in the military.

In a strong-worded statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR), its spokesperson said that the HRW report, titled “Shahzad commission results marred by free ride for ISI”, published on January 30 this year was “found to be extremely derogatory, biased and contradictory in terms”.

The military called the HRW statement “extremely derogatory, biased and contradictory”, and accused Asia director Brad Adams of discrediting the judicial investigation, demonising the ISI and castigating the government.

“Brad Adams may have his head buried deep in sand and HRW may be choking under heaps of bias but it is quite apparent that such diatribe is exceptionally disparaging,” it said.

The journalist told HRW before his death that he had been threatened by intelligence agents. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency denies any responsibility for his death.

HRW said in January that the ISI should “stop acting as a state within a state” after the government failed to identify and punish Shahzad’s killers.

Adams said the ISI remains “beyond the reach of Pakistan’s criminal justice system” and that abuses “will only stop if it is subject to the rule of law, civilian oversight, and public accountability”.

But the military said the HRW statement was part of a “well orchestrated and sinister media campaign”.

“It is unclear where Adams forms opinions like these from but one thing is evident that his thought process and ability to logically analyse a situation suffers from serious bias,” the military hit back.

It then launched a vigorous defence of the Supreme Court and the judicial investigation that was set up to investigate the murder, pointing out that the courts have recently initiated investigations into the intelligence services.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2012.