JOIN USNaik’s body was found in his home in the heart of the Pakistani capital.
The revelation that he has been murdered marked a turnaround from a police spokesman’s earlier statement that there were no marks of injury on the former diplomat’s body. Naik, 70, was unmarried and had been living alone in his house in a neighbourhood in central Islamabad for a long time.
A post-mortem examination of Naik’s body revealed he was tortured before being killed, said police officials and doctors who performed the autopsy.
Naik was hit with a sharp and heavy object and there were signs of torture on his neck. Four ribs and the jaw were fractured and the lungs were damaged, the autopsy report said.
Naik, who also served as High Commissioner to India and was involved in back-channel diplomacy during the Kargil conflict of 1999, apparently died three to four days ago, police said. Police officials said they were trying to ascertain the motive behind the murder.
The former diplomat was involved in back-channel parleys with R K Mishra, an aide of the then Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during the Kargil war.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, former premier and opposition PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif condoled Naik’s death.