Did Pakistan officials plan to kill human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir?

Reports based on communication intercepts from 2010 to 2012 and other intelligence in classified documents available with the Washington Post indicate that officials in Pakistan’s security apparatus weren’t only targeting suspected insurgents when it came to extra-judicial action and that there was in deed a plot in the works to "eliminate" prominent rights activist Asma Jahangir
According to the summary of a top-secret Defence Intelligence Agency (report), US intelligence agencies had in May 2012 discovered evidence of Pakistani officers plotting to kill Jahangir. The DIA report did not identify which officers were plotting the attack against the activist, but said the plan “included either tasking militants to kill her in India or tasking militants or criminals to kill her in Pakistan”.
The US agency said it did not know whether the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of which Jahangir has been a leading public critic, had approved for the plot to proceed. And although, the report speculated that the ISI was motivated to kill Jahangir “to quiet public criticism of the military,” the agency noted that such a plot “would result in international and domestic backlash as ISI is already under significant criticism for intimidation and extra-judicial killings”.
News of the alleged plot became public a few weeks later when Jahangir gave interviews in the Pakistani media, saying she had learned that officials of Pakistani intelligence had authorised her killing. Addressing reporters on June 4, 2012, Jahangir had said that through a security leak brought to her attention by a highly credible source, she had discovered that an assassination attempt was being planned against her from the highest levels of the security establishment. Jahangir said she thought it best to go public with the information as she feared that she could be killed and a member of her family framed for the murder.
http://dawn.com/news/1040480/intelligence-points-to-2012-plot-to-kill-asma-jahangir-report

US Intelligence agencies had uncovered evidence of a plot hatched by Pakistani security officials to use militants to kill rights activist Asma Jahangir in India...
Citing classified documents provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, The Washington Post reported that US intelligence agencies had discovered evidence of the plot against Jahangir, one of Pakistan's leading critics of the security establishment. In May 2012, the US agencies found out that Pakistani security officers were plotting to "eliminate" Jahangir, according to the summary of a top-secret Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) report.
The DIA did not identify which officers were plotting to kill Jahangir, but it said the plan "included either tasking militants to kill her in India or tasking militants or criminals to kill her in Pakistan". The US agency said it did not know whether Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had given approval for the plot to proceed. Though the DIA report speculated that the ISI was motivated to kill Jahangir "to quiet public criticism of the military", the agency noted that such a plot "would result in international and domestic backlash as ISI is already under significant criticism for intimidation and extra-judicial killings". News of the alleged plot became public a few weeks later when Jahangir gave several interviews to journalists, revealing that she had learned that Pakistani intelligence officials had marked her for death.

Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

Satyagraha - An answer to modern nihilism

Rudyard Kipling: critical essay by George Orwell (1942)

Three Versions of Judas: Jorge Luis Borges

Goodbye Sadiq al-Azm, lone Syrian Marxist against the Assad regime