Pakistani military and intelligence leaders orchestrating a wave of extrajudicial killings of terrorism suspects for years even plotted to "eliminate" prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir during a visit to India, the Washington Post reported citing secret documents.
Classified documents given to the Post by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden reveal that "US spy agencies for years reported that senior Pakistani military and intelligence leaders were orchestrating a wave of extrajudicial killings of terrorism suspects and other militants".
Other US intelligence documents indicate that Pakistani officials weren't targeting just suspected insurgents, the daily said.
"In May 2012, US intelligence agencies discovered evidence of Pakistani officers plotting to 'eliminate' a prominent human rights activist, Asma Jahangir," the Post said citing the summary of a top secret Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) report.
The DIA report did not identify which officers were plotting to kill Jahangir, who had been a leading critic of the ISI for years, the Post said.
But it said the plan "included either tasking militants to kill her in India or tasking militants or criminals to kill her in Pakistan".
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The US agency said it did not know whether the ISI had given approval for the plot to proceed.
Although the report speculated that the ISI was motivated to kill Jahangir, "to quiet public criticism of the military", the DIA, according to the Post, 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 a round of interviews to journalists, revealing that she had learned that Pakistani intelligence officials had marked her for death. The plot was never carried out," the Post said.