| http://paknews.com/main.php?id=3&date1=2002-01-30
India behind abduction of US journalist Daniel Pearl By Kamran Khan of The News Updated on 2002-01-30 11:13:46 KARACHI JAN 30 (PNS): Pakistani investigators of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case have discovered that the man who had invited Pearl for a meeting at a downtown Karachi restaurant just before he went missing on Wednesday last made at least six phone calls to two different numbers in New Delhi before he abandoned his mobile phone on Saturday last, informed officials have confirmed here. The officials said Pakistani intelligence officials and the agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are now making separate efforts to locate the individuals and addresses which were contacted in the Indian capital from Karachi at least 24 hours after Pearl's kidnapping around 7 pm from Village Garden restaurant near Karachi's Avari Towers hotel. Pakistani investigators have established that fake identity papers under the name of Amir Siddiqi were used to purchase a mobile phone connection from the Mobilink only a week before Pearl's kidnapping. Final calls for the Wednesday appointment with Pearl as well as all post-kidnapping calls to Delhi were made from the same mobile phone connection. Some Pakistani intelligence officials have long suspected that the agents from Indian intelligence service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have penetrated into various jihadi organisations and they were active in frustrating President General Musharraf's drive to turn Pakistan into a modern and moderate Islamic state. A senior Pakistani official, however, said, "it was premature to speculate about an Indian hand in kidnapping, but the government is using its full resources to locate the perpetrators of the crime." On Sunday, three days after the kidnapping, a previously unknown group called The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty sent an e-mail with attached pictures of Daniel Pearl to news organisations in Pakistan and abroad claiming responsibility for his kidnapping. The Organisation claimed that Pearl was a CIA official, a fact vehemently denied by the CIA and the Wall Street Journal, and demanded that all Pakistanis currently detained in the US and the American military base in Cuba be returned to Pakistan. It also echoed an often-repeated Pakistan government demand with the United States to deliver the F-16 fighter aircraft - which have already been paid for by the government of Pakistan. A demand for the release of former Afghanistan ambassador to Pakistan was also put forward by the group which used an address of [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Maybe to mislead the investigators and public opinion the demands have been drafted in a way as if they came from a motivated group within the government," observed a senior police investigator in Karachi. Before his kidnapping last week, Pearl, the South Asia correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, was investigating the alleged links between a little known radical Islamic group called Jamat Al-Fuqra headed by Sheikh Mubarak Jilani and Richard Reeves who had made an abortive bid to blow up an American airliner which was on way to Boston from Paris last month, Pearl's wife and colleagues informed Pakistani officials. According to these accounts Pearl was particularly interested in tracing the individuals behind the e-mails that had been sent to and from Richard Reeves before he embarked upon a failed suicide mission from Paris. The e-mail traffic to Reeves had originated from Karachi's internet service provider called Cyber net, but they all originated from various internet cafes in the city. To investigate the Reeves-Jilani story Pearl was very keen to meet Sheikh Jilani, whose Al-Fuqra was designated as terrorist organisation by the US State Department in 1995, but it was de-listed as a terrorist group in 1999. Al-Fuqra was involved in hate crimes and anti-Hindu violence in the United States. Its activities remained restricted to the United States. Police officials suspect that Pearl's search for Jilani took a dangerous turn, as his contacts that include two Rawalpindi journalists mistakenly introduced him to the activists of a known Jihadi group, twice designated as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department. A middle-aged Jihadi group activist identified as Bashir, which, according to the police investigators, was the fake identity of the man who had held an undercover meeting with Pearl at a Rawalpindi hotel room booked under a fake name two weeks ago, is now at the centre of police investigation into the kidnapping case. After this Rawalpindi meeting during which Bashir promised Pearl a meeting with Sheikh Jilani's principal contact in Karachi, he stayed in touch with Pearl through his mobile phone and an e-mail address identified as: nobadmashi (Urdu for no rascality)@yahoo.com. It was on Bashir's recommendation that Pearl set up an appointment with one Amir Siddiqi, also a fake name, for a meeting at 7 pm on Wednesday at Karachi's Village Garden restaurant near Avari Towers hotel. Amir, investigators say, was introduced to Pearl by Bashir as a key lieutenant of Sheikh Jilani. Informed officials said an investigation by the Pakistani and American intelligence officials has established that the fake names and addresses were used to establish phone and e-mail connections exclusively with Pearl. "Only a well-trained intelligence organisation or an equally professional terrorist group can deliver such a well-planned kidnapping," observed a senior Karachi police investigator. He added: "It is first of Lebanon style political kidnappings in Pakistan". Karachi police officials now conducting a nation-wide probe into the Pearl kidnapping case generally feel that the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty was just a name created by a well-trained professional terrorist group. Investigators have confirmed that the police investigation in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi has so far failed to establish Sheikh Jilani or his organisation's link with Pearl's kidnapping. While Jilani is in hiding, perhaps because of the appearance of his name in the US media in Richard Reeves case, several individuals including Jilani's son were arrested and intensely questioned by the police but no clue was found. While the police make nation-wide effort to trace Pearl's kidnappers, some Pakistani security officials -- not familiar with the worth of solid investigative reporting in the international media -- are privately searching for answers as to why a Jewish American reporter was exceeding "his limits" to investigate Pakistani religious group. These official are also guessing, rather loudly, as to why Pearl decided to bring in an Indian journalist as his full time assistant in Pakistan. Ansa Nomani, an American passport holder Indian-Muslim lady who had come from Mumbai to Karachi with Pearl, was working as his full time assistant in the country. The same group of officials is also intrigued as to why an American newspaper reporter based in Mumbai would also establish a full time residence in Karachi by renting a residence. "An India based Jewish reporter serving a largely Jewish media organisation should have known the hazards of exposing himself to radical Islamic groups, particularly those who recently got crushed under American military might," remarked a senior Pakistani official. A growing feeling in some government quarters, including intelligence services, that the western reporters and officials currently operating in Pakistan may not be provided an unhindered access to government installations, Islamic groups and individuals appeared to have gained momentum in the wake of Pearl's kidnapping, officials confirmed. Officials have confirmed that the Government of Pakistan through Interior Minister Lt (retd) General Moinuddin Haider, Sindh Governor Mohammadmian Soomro and also through the Foreign Office has communicated to the United States embassy in Pakistan that the government would happily like to offer plain clothes policemen to journalists and other officials during their outside engagements in Pakistan. Officials think that the international journalists and other officials who would decline this official offer for security would in effect absolve the government of Pakistan of its responsibility to provide a security umbrella to foreign visitors in the country. Shakeel Anjum adds from Islamabad: Detectives, with the help of the local police, were making some headway to find Pearl. The SSP has constituted an investigating team, headed by DSP Cantonment, to probe the case at the local level, sources said. However, the joint investigation team, consisting of national and international experts, was also investigating the case. The team detained 13 persons close to Pir Mubarik Shah, allegedly the main suspect of the kidnapping case, to arrest him and his companions, Arif and Bashir, the sources said. The mother and sister of Pir Mubarik Shah, along with other relatives, had already been booked. The detainees were kept in Westridge, New Town, Cantonment and City police stations, the sources added. The agencies involved the management of the Hotel Akbar International in the process of interrogation, and especially one Abid, who had arranged and was present in the meeting, was also detained. PNS Adds: Meanwhile Law enforcing agencies are looking into the possibility of Indian secret agency RAW being involved in the presumed kidnapping of US reporter Daniel Pearl. Inspector General Sindh Police Syed Kamal talking to this agency said that according to the evidence being gathered so far it is too early to say that the journalist was kidnapped and all this could be a ploy to malign Pakistan adding that is why external hand being involved in this incident is not being ruled out. Pearl disappeared last Wednesday in the volatile port city of Karachi, apparently as he pursued a story about alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid, who is being tried in the United States for trying to blow up an airliner last month. The IG said various government agencies were coordinating closely and the search for the missing Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter was being monitored by the country's "highest authority". India has lately been accusing Pakistan on every incident which is happening in India. Pakistan considers it an organized plan by Indian secret agencies to malign Pakistan, when it's involved in fight against terrorism with coalition forces. India was disappointed when USA ignored Indian request to use its bases and instead chose Pakistan. After September 11, 2001, India has accused Pakistan more than three times for sponsoring activities in India which Pakistan denied and called it stage managed activites by India to malign Pakistan. There are more than 3000 US Forces present on Pakistan soil and are engaged in different operations inside Agfghanistan and on Pakistan's western border with the help of Pakistan Military. India has stationed more than 700,000 of its troop on border forcing Pakistan military on the western border with US forces to move to the eastern border to counter any Indian aggression. End. |
