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| Sunday, 3 February 2002 |
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Fate of U.S. reporter in Pakistan uncertain ISLAMABAD, Saturday (Reuters) Pakistani and U.S. police were searching on Saturday for kidnapped U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, after one message said he had been killed but another demanded the release of a top Taliban prisoner and $2 million. Police in the southern port city of Karachi, where Pearl was abducted 10 days ago, said they had been hunting all night but had yet to find Pearl or determine the authenticity of the conflicting claims. The search was concentrated on graveyards in Karachi after an email message sent to news organisations said the reporter's body had been dumped in a city cemetery. "We've searched most of the graveyards in the city throughout the night but nothing was found," said a police official. "We cannot ignore any threat or information, even if it's a hoax," said the police official who declined to be identified. A U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said earlier that news organisations had passed to the U.S. government the email which said Pearl had been killed. "We have killed Mr Danny," said the email, which was signed "Anti American", the official said. But there was a conflicting message. A caller to the U.S. consulate in Karachi late on Friday demanded $2 million and the release of former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef within 36 hours, Jamil told Reuters. Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, 38, disappeared in Karachi while working on a story about alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid and trying to contact radical Islamic groups. A group claiming to hold him has sent a number of emails threatening to kill Pearl and demanding the release of Pakistani prisoners captured by U.S. forces during the Afghan war. The call was traced to a location in Karachi, which was then raided, a police official said. He declined to elaborate. DEADLINE EXTENDED A previously unknown group, The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, says it holds Pearl. It first threatened to kill him at the expiry of a 24-hour ultimatum set late on Wednesday, which was extended by another day. U.S. officials said Washington had not come to any conclusion about the authenticity of the latest email, which unlike earlier messages did not contain photographs of Pearl. "We have seen the reports, we are unable to confirm them, and we are following up," said a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. A diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Pakistan declined to comment the conflicting messages. "There are a lot of rumours out there and we are trying to run them down," he said. A Wall Street Journal spokesman said: "We have seen the reports and we remain hopeful that they are not true." Earlier emails included photographs of Pearl, one with a with a gun pointed at his head, and a warning to U.S. journalists in Pakistan to leave the country in three days or risk being targeted. "We are thirsty for the blood of another American," the latest email was reported to have said. Taliban ambassador Zaeef is one of the United States' most senior Taliban prisoners from the Afghan war. He was deported from Pakistan to Afghanistan in early January and was taken into U.S. custody. The bespectacled 34-year-old ethnic Pashtun became famous as the Taliban's principal voice to the outside world following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington blamed on fugitive militant Osama bin Laden, long sheltered by the ousted hardline movement in Afghanistan. |
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