Mullen: Pakistan sanctioned reporter's killing

WASHINGTON — Pakistan on Friday denounced as "extremely irresponsible" comments by the top-ranking U.S. military officer that elements of the Pakistan government had sanctioned the killing of a Pakistani journalist in May.

The remarks by Admiral Mike Mullen are likely to place new strains on Pakistan.-U.S. ties, already seriously damaged following the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May.
The death of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad prompted intense speculation about the possible involvement of the Pakistan military's powerful spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), but Mullen said on Thursday he could not confirm involvement of the ISI.
Mullen said he did not have a "string of evidence" linking Shahzad's death to a specific government agency.
But he added: "I have not seen anything that would disabuse that report that the government knew about this."
"It was sanctioned by the government, yeah," he told reporters from the Pentagon Press Association.
Story: Critic silenced? US sources accuse Pakistan's spies over 'barbaric' murder Mullen said Shahzad's death and the reported abuse of other journalists was not the way for a government to move ahead.

"It's a way to continue to, quite frankly, spiral in the wrong direction," he said.
The remarks were the most explicit remarks to date on the case by a senior U.S. official.