International
5 questioned on missing U.S. journalist
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, JAN. 27. Pakistani authorities have interrogated five persons belonging to a sectarian group in connection with the mysterious disappearance of an American reporter in Karachi.
That the journalist, Daniel Pearl, was reportedly investigating a story on the Al-Qaeda network has caused concern. He has been missing for the last three days and the police have not made any headway in locating him.
This is the first major incident since the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, made his January 12 speech in which he had banned five extremist outfits and outlined the strategy of his Government to deal with terrorist groups.
The authorities are not taking any chances and have launched a massive manhunt for the missing reporter. They have dismissed as a hoax an e-mail claiming that Pearl had been kidnapped.
Radicals slam crackdown
Reuters reports from Peshawar:
About 2,000 Muslim supporters of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban rallied in Peshawar today to denounce a crackdown on radical Islamic groups in the country and the U.S'. treatment of Afghan prisoners.
The rally was the first show of strength by the groups since Gen. Musharraf announced a string of measures against militancy and sectarianism. Leaders of the rally said they had the right to wage a jihad (holy war) and warned Gen. Musharraf that they could remove him from power at any time.
The protesters wanted an end to what they called the inhuman and insulting treatment of Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners by the U.S. forces.
The U.S., which has moved 158 of its Taliban and Al- Qaeda prisoners to a jail in Cuba, has been accused by human rights groups and some politicians at home and abroad of treating the prisoners inhumanely - a charge denied by Washington. A statement said the restrictions Gen. Musharraf imposed this month on mosques and Islamic schools (Madrassas), would be resisted and called on activists to gather for another protest in Lahore next Sunday.
``We can remove Musharraf whenever we want to,'' Syed Munawar Hassana, secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, told the rally.
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