CPJ seeks probe into Pak scribe's killing

New York, Nov 2 (UNI) The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged for an immediate and high-level investigation into the apparent murder of Mohammad Ismail, the Islamabad Bureau Chief for Pakistan Press International, a news agency.

The CPJ is a New York-based independent and non-profit organisation that works for safeguarding press freedom worldwide.

''Mohammad Ismail's murder must be fully investigated,'' said Mr Joel Simon, CPJ's executive director.

''An alarming number of Pakistani journalists have been killed with impunity in the last four years.

The government must show that it is determined to end this very poor record by conducting a timely and thorough investigation.'' The CPJ records suggested that at least nine journalists have been killed for their work beginning 2002, when Mumbai-based South Asia Bureau Chief for The Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and brutally slain in Karachi. Only in the Pearl case has the government carried out an extensive investigation, made arrests and ensured convictions, it said.

During a CPJ mission to Pakistan in July, officials promised to review investigative records and reveal government information on the killings of Pakistani journalists.

Ismail's body was found yesterday morning near his Islamabad home with his head smashed with some blunt object, according to Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). News reports quoted a police investigator having said an iron bar might have been used as a weapon.

Ismail, nearing his retirement, was last seen when he left his home to take a late evening walk. Doctors, who received the body when it was taken to hospital, told PFUJ that Ismail had been dead a few hours before the body was discovered.

Members of Ismail's family told Abbas that they couldn't understand what had prompted the attack. They told him Ismail was carrying little of value when he was assaulted. Also, the news agency has not been known for reporting against the government.

UNI XC SAM HT1130