- Ijaz Shah
Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Shah is the former Director of Intelligence Bureau, and a long-term close associate ofPervez Musharraf , and a former PakistanInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official. [ [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=ijaz_shah Profile of Saeed Sheikh] , under 5 February 2002] He resigned as the IB chief on17 March ,2008 . Appointed in 2004, the IB chief became a controversial personality and he was accused of using his department for political victimisation and for undermining the judiciary. [Syed Irfan Raza. [http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/18/top9.htm 'Intelligence Bureau chief removed'] "Dawn Newspaper", March 18, 2008]Career as ISI officer
Shah was the ISI handling officer of the British-born international terrorist
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh , convicted for the murder of "Wall Street Journal " reporterDaniel Pearl and part of the terrorist groupHarkat-ul-Mujahideen as well as the handling officer forOsama Bin Laden andMulla Omar . In 1999, while serving a prison sentence for terrorist offence, Sheikh had been released in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814. In February 2002, cornered by Pakistani police under strong American diplomatic pressure, Omar Sheikh turned himself to his close confident Brig. Shah, who then was the Home Secretary of the Pakistani Punjab region: Shah briefed Sheikh for a full week before remanding him to police custody; [John Donnelly, "Probe ID's Pearl abductor," "Boston Globe" 7 February 2002; [http://cynical-nerd.nationalinterest.in/?p=20 Reported in "The Cynical Nerd"'s "Indian Nation Interest"] , posted 4 May 2006.] this famous "missing week" has never been accounted for in public.he also did working for his friend atif shabbir famous with the name BUNTY,IB chief
In 2004, Musharraf's attempt to appoint Ijaz Shah as High Commissioner to Australia was rejected in a highly unusual move by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs department. Instead Musharraf appointed him to head Pakistani Intelligence Bureau on 25 February 2004, transferring his predecessor, Wali Muhammad to Australia. [ [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_26-2-2004_pg7_2 "Ijaz Shah new IB chief"] "Daily Times", 26 February 2004.]
Mr Shah agreed to go to Australia as Pakistan’s high commissioner in 2007, but President Musharraf accepted the current high commissioner’s plea for a year’s extension in tenure.Fact|date=March 2008
Role in Benazir's Assassination Attempt
Days after the
2007 Karachi bombings ,Benazir Bhutto in a letter to President Musharaf written on16 October ,2007 named Ijaz Shah as one of the four persons including the then chief minister of PunjabChaudhry Pervaiz Elahi , the then chief minister of SindhArbab Ghulam Rahim , and the former ISI chiefHamid Gul she suspected were behind the attacks. [Shakeel, Syed Faisal [http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/30/top12.htm PPP demands probe based on Benazir’s letter] "Dawn Newspaper", December 30, 2007]Notes
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