Islamabad/Lahore: The mystery surrounding
the murder of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad
deepened on Wednesday after it emerged that police had hurriedly
buried his body after finding it in a canal in Punjab province
on Monday.
Following pressure from Shahzad`s family, a judge
ordered the exhumation of the body.
Shahzad was reported missing while driving from his
home to a TV station in the heart of Islamabad on Sunday
evening, two days after he authored an article in which he
alleged that Al Qaida had infiltrated the Pakistan Navy.
His body, bearing marks of torture, was found
entangled in a net in a canal in Mandi Bahauddin district, 200
km from Lahore, on Monday.
Local police sent the body to a state-run hospital
for an autopsy and hurriedly buried it, saying it was
"unidentified" despite finding a press identity card.
Maulvi Muhammad Arshad, who prepared the body for
burial, told Geo News channel today that two police officials
pressured him to quickly bathe the body and bury it.
Following pressure from Shahzad`s family, a judge
ordered the exhumation of the body.
Footage on television showed the body being dug out of
the grave late last night.
"Unusually quickly for Pakistani police, all legal
formalities were completed, the autopsy was conducted on the
unidentified body and it was handed over to Edhi Centre for
burial," the Dawn newspaper reported.
He was buried in Karachi today after his body was
brought from Islamabad. Hundreds of mourners, including fellow
scribes attended the funeral of the slain journalist.
PTI
