dawn.com

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A former Pakistani intelligence officer abducted by an alleged militant group last month was found shot dead Friday in a northwest tribal region, officials said.

Khalid Khawaja went missing in late March along with another ex-intelligence official known as Col. Imam and a filmmaker. There was no word on the fate of the two others.

Khawaja’s body was found on the road between Miramshah and Mir Ali, the two main towns in North Waziristan. Local TV channels broadcast a picture of what appeared to be Khawaja’s body.

He had been shot in the head and chest, and a note attached to his body accused him of being an American spy, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be named by media.

The men were first reported abducted in late March. Soon after, a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Asian Tigers claimed to be holding the men in a video delivered to local media. Any demands they had were not made public.

Khawaja was known to be sympathetic to the militants cause, often appearing on television speaking in defense of suspected extremists.

He has claimed to be close to Osama bin Laden in the early days of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union.

Recently, he has spoken up in defense of five young American terror suspects on trial in Pakistan.

He also filed a petition in a Pakistani court to stop any attempt by Islamabad to extradite recently arrested Afghan Taliban leaders, including the movement’s No. 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.—AP