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| Sunday, 10 February 2002 |
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Police lay first charges over abduction of US journalist KARACHI, Feb 8 (AFP) - Pakistani police on Friday laid their first charges in relation to the abduction of US correspondent Daniel Pearl, but 16 days after he disappeared his fate remained a mystery and the chief suspects had not been found. Three men were charged with aiding and abetting the kidnap, after admitting during three days of interrogation to sending e-mails containing photos of Pearl in captivity and death threats. They were the first charges since Pearl disappeared in Karachi, the Sindh provincial capital, on January 23, although several people have been arrested. "We have arrested them formally in connection with the kidnapping case ... They have a role in this case," the Sindh police chief, Inspector General Kamal Shah, told AFP. The three, a former Pakistani police intelligence officer and two cousins said to be members of the outlawed extremist group Jaish-e-Mohammad, were nabbed in a raid in this southern port city on Tuesday night. The e-mails, threatening to kill the Wall Street Journal reporter unless the United States released a Taliban diplomat and Pakistani prisoners captured during the war in Afghanistan, showed Pearl in chains with a gun pointed at his head. But none of the four main suspects has been caught. Police have identified British-born Sheikh Omar, said to be a leader of US-listed "terrorist" group Jaish-e-Mohammad, as the chief suspect behind the kidnapping but appeared no closer to tracking him down Friday. The three charged Friday said they sent the e-mails at the behest of Omar, who disappeared from his home with his wife and baby days before Pearl's abduction. Muslim militants Mohammad Hashim Qadeer, Mohammad Bashir and Imtiaz Siddiqui are also named suspects on the belief that they helped arrange an interview between Pearl and Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, leader of another little-known militant Muslim group, Tanzeem-ul-Fuqra. In the latest of a series of raids in major cities, police in Karachi on Thursday night detained a relative of Suleman Saqib, one of the believed Jaish-e-Mohammad members already in custody. Authorities have backed down from their earlier optimism of finding Pearl soon, and Friday were tight-lipped about the investigation's progress. They are under pressure to solve the case before Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf heads to the United States next week for talks with President George W. Bush. Musharraf on Friday said that investigators were "getting near" to Pearl. "We have got some key personalities...We very much hope that he will be freed very soon, but not as yet," Musharraf told a joint press conference in the capital Islamabad with visiting Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai. Musharraf has been applauded in the United States for his recent pledge to crack down on Islamic extremist groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad, one of five Islamic groups which he outlawed in January. Sindh police chief Shah earlier Friday refused to set a time frame for discovering Pearl. Sindh governor Governor Mohammedmian Soomro said investigators were being more cautious "...so as not to jeopardise the safety and security of the journalist." The Jaish-e-Mohammad also features on the US terrorist blacklist, along with its parent organisation, the Harkatul Mujahedin, which is also based in Pakistan. Jaish has denied any connection to Omar or with the abduction of Pearl. |
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