Title: Pak names Jaish leader key suspect in Pearl case
Author:  
Publication: The Times of India
Date: Feb 6, 2002
URL: http://www.timesofindia.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=1398674271

KARACHI: Islamic militant Sheikh Omar, a leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammad extremist group, has emerged as a chief suspect behind the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel Pearl, investigators said on Wednesday.

Sources involved in the police investigation said three men arrested here overnight had identified Omar as the source of e-mails containing photographs of Pearl in captivity.

"They have told investigators that they sent the e-mails with photographs on the directives of Sheikh Omar," one investigator said, on condition of anonymity.

He said police later raided Omar's in-laws' house in the eastern city of Lahore and arrested some of his relatives.

The three arrests in this southern port city, where the Wall Street Journal reporter was last seen 14 days ago, could lead to a "breakthrough" in the search, police said.

Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said information gleaned from the three detainees during "intense interrogation" indicated for the first time that the kidnapping was the work of a group and not individuals.

"They are being interrogated and it is not yet completed, but we are quite optimistic that the case will be resolved very soon," he said. "It seems that a group, not a few individuals, were involved."

A previously unknown group calling itself the Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty claimed responsibility for the abduction in two e-mails last week.

They threatened to kill Pearl by last Thursday, later extending the deadline to Friday, unless Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan and former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef were released from US custody.

The group has not been heard from since, but police, who are being assisted by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, believe Pearl is still alive and being held somewhere in Karachi.

Police on Tuesday also named three other militants - Mohammad Hashim Qadeer, Mohammad Bashir and Imtiaz Siddiqui - as "prime suspects" but they have not been found.

These men were involved in arranging an interview between Pearl, 38, and Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, leader of another little-known militant Muslim group, Tanzeem-ul-Fuqra. Gilani has also been detained and questioned.

Sheikh Omar, who was born in England and educated at the London School of Economics, is one of the leading figures in the Jaish-e-Mohammad, although little is known about the 29-year-old from East London.

He was released from a prison in India - where he was being held for his links to the Harkatul Mujahedin Islamic militant group - at the end of 1999 in exchange for hostages on a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in Afghanistan.

(AFP)