Islamabad, June 1 (IANS) A second autopsy was conducted here on journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad who was said to have been picked up by the ISI and later found tortured and murdered, a media report said Wednesday.

The second autopsy was carried out at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital here.

Geo News quoted family sources as saying that on their insistence a medical board comprising three doctors was set up and it conducted Shazad's autopsy.

The report would be released Thursday.

The body of 40-year-old Shazad, a correspondent of Asia Times Online who wrote extensively on Islamist groups, was found in a canal in Mandi Bahauddin area of Punjab province.

The journalist had authored an article for Asia Times that reported that the Al Qaeda's operational arm carried out the audacious attack on the Karachi naval base after the navy refused to free sailors who had been arrested for suspected Islamist links.

This article, some of his friends said, may have been linked to his abduction and eventual murder.

A doctor who conducted the first autopsy had said: "It is very disturbing for all of us. He was beaten to death, his ribs were broken and marks of wounds were on his left side and on the legs."