Islamabad:
A gunman fired into the house of a liberal columnist over the weekend and an anonymous caller threatened to kill him, warnings the journalist said he believed had come from the fringes of Pakistan's security establishment.
The columnist, Kamran Shafi, 63, said a gunman shot six bullets into his house outside Islamabad on Friday while he and his family were sleeping. No one was hurt. The next day, he received a call from a woman who said what had happened "was a trailer," and warned he would see the "whole movie if you don't behave."
The woman added: "You don't spit into the plate you eat from."
Shafi, a former major in the Pakistani Army, has written extensively against the military's involvement in politics, a delicate topic in a country where the military has immense power over the affairs of state. He said he believed that those who ordered the threat were from inside the powerful security establishment, possibly from the military's intelligence arm, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
A spokesman for ISI said Monday: "Our organization does not do these kind of things."
Pakistan has had three coups in its 62-year history, and Pakistanis like Shafi argue that the army's involvement in politics thwarts democratic growth.
"This seems like a warning not to write about the security establishment," he said by telephone on Monday. He said a car tried to run him off the road earlier this year, an episode that he interpreted as a first warning.
The news media in Pakistan are free and outspoken, but few journalists openly challenge the military. Shafi's weekly columns, in the daily newspaper Dawn, were an exception. A recent column questioning why ISI was not run by a civilian drew a barrage of angry e-mail messages, he said.
The columnist, Kamran Shafi, 63, said a gunman shot six bullets into his house outside Islamabad on Friday while he and his family were sleeping. No one was hurt. The next day, he received a call from a woman who said what had happened "was a trailer," and warned he would see the "whole movie if you don't behave."
The woman added: "You don't spit into the plate you eat from."
Shafi, a former major in the Pakistani Army, has written extensively against the military's involvement in politics, a delicate topic in a country where the military has immense power over the affairs of state. He said he believed that those who ordered the threat were from inside the powerful security establishment, possibly from the military's intelligence arm, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
A spokesman for ISI said Monday: "Our organization does not do these kind of things."
Pakistan has had three coups in its 62-year history, and Pakistanis like Shafi argue that the army's involvement in politics thwarts democratic growth.
"This seems like a warning not to write about the security establishment," he said by telephone on Monday. He said a car tried to run him off the road earlier this year, an episode that he interpreted as a first warning.
The news media in Pakistan are free and outspoken, but few journalists openly challenge the military. Shafi's weekly columns, in the daily newspaper Dawn, were an exception. A recent column questioning why ISI was not run by a civilian drew a barrage of angry e-mail messages, he said.
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