ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: A senior Islamabad-based journalist, Malik Mohammad Ismail Khan, was brutally murdered overnight near a central market of the capital in what a government minister called an act of terrorism.

The body of the 50-year-old bureau chief of the Pakistan Press International (PPI) news agency in Islamabad, with his head smashed, was found on Wednesday morning lying among trees in a green belt, not far from his office in the Super Market of the capital’s F-6 Markaz, the police said.

There was no immediate information about who killed him or the motive of the murder, which shocked the journalist community already concerned about increasing physical dangers faced by its members.

The police said they had registered a case and would investigate it in the light of a post-mortem report from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) hospital, according to which the journalist was hit by some heavy weapon that smashed one side of his face and severely injured his head.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani described it an “act of terrorism” when he visited the Pims to share grief with journalists present there.

Dr Wasim Khawaja, who carried out the autopsy of the body, told Dawn, it seemed to be a brutal “target killing”.

“There were clear marks of a rope (tied) around his hands and multiple injuries on his head. However, the poisoning cannot be ruled out as undigested food was found from his stomach,” he said.

Dr Khawaja said samples from the journalist’s stomach and other organs had been preserved and sent to a chemical laboratory to ascertain whether there was some other cause as well of the death — such as poisoning — besides the physical violence.

“It seems to be a murder, brutally committed,” Islamabad’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sikandar Hayat said.

But, he said, it would be premature to say anything about the motive as the investigation was “yet to be started”.

The SSP said the victim seemed to have been killed on the same spot from where his body was recovered several hours after he had gone out for a walk about 9:30pm after finishing work at his office, where he has also been living for some months.

“Nothing else was found from the spot which could lead the police to trace the killers immediately,” he said. It was his journalist’s business card which helped the police to identify him after the blood-stained body was spotted at the place by some passerby.

As quoted by the SSP, a watchman at the PPI office premises, identified as Mr Tariq, said: “Mr Ismail told me that he was going for a walk which was his routine and he left the scene.” But he never came back.

The SSP ruled out the possibility of robbery as the journalist’s wallet still had an unspecified amount of cash.

Mr Ismail, a father of two, belonged to Attock but had been living in the office premises for last few months whenever he could not go to his home town. His killing was the third of a Pakistani journalist during 2006 so far.

Mr Ismail was widely admired for his courage and tenacity in uncovering stories.

A first information report lodged by the journalist’s son, Zeeshan Ismail Khan, said he remained with his father at his office at the Super Market till 7pm on Tuesday before leaving for Attock.

Zeeshan, who recently did his BCS (Honours), said his father had been discussing his future with him at the time and that he received a call from his father’s mobile at 9.30pm informing him about his plans to go for a walk.

Mr Ismail had been in journalism for about 30 years and served various prominent media organisations.

His namaz-i-janaza was offered at Zero Point where offices of several media organisations are situated. Hundreds of journalists and people belonging to different walks of life attended the prayers, including Housing and Works Minister Syed Safwanullah and PPP Senator Babar Awan.

The body was later taken to Attock where funeral prayers for the journalist would be held on Thursday at 10am at his native Dawara Sanjwal village.

Statement condemning the murder were issued by several politicians, the information minister, PML secretary-general Senator Mushahid Hussein Sayed and PPP information secretary and MNA Sherry Rehman.

PPP Senator Babar Awan told reporters, Mr Ismail’s was the 12th murder in Islamabad in a month and perpetrators of none of them had been traced yet.