Investigative journalist found dead was tortured

A PAKISTANI journalist who investigated al-Qaeda's alleged infiltration of the navy and told a rights activist he'd been threatened by the country's intelligence agencies has been found dead. Police said his body showed signs of torture.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, a correspondent for the Asia Times Online and Italian news agency Adnkronos International, went missing on Sunday from Islamabad.

Last week, militants staged an 18-hour siege of a naval base in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. The attack further embarrassed a security establishment still reeling from the US raid against Osama bin Laden.

Pakistan has protested that the US incursion on 2 May was a violation of its sovereignty. Shahzad wrote a story for the Asia Times alleging al-Qaeda staged the raid after talks failed with the navy over releasing some of its officials held on suspicion of ties to the terror network. The story came amid widespread suspicion that militants in the raid had inside help.

Last October, Shahzad wrote an article claiming Pakistan had freed a Taleban commander who had been arrested with much fanfare so he could "play a pivotal role in back channel talks through the Pakistani army with Washington".

Within days, he was summoned to Pakistan's premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, according to an e-mail he sent to Ali Dayan Hasan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. Officials pressured him to reveal his sources or retract the story, but he declined.