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`Indian link in U.S. scribe kidnap'
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABA6D, JAN. 31. Pakistan today alleged that there was an Indian link to the kidnapping of the Wall Street Journal, reporter, Daniel Pearl, and it was investigating the angle whether it was stage-managed to defame the country.
The group that kidnapped the reporter had sent an e- mail to the American media threatening to execute him if their demands, including the release of Pakistani prisoners from the war in Afghanistan, were not met in 24 hours time. (According to a report, the group has since extended the deadline by a day.) Police in Karachi have been quoted as saying that they were taking the threat seriously.
The Press Secretary to the Pakistan President, Rashid Qureshi, asserted at a news conference here that ``there is an establishment of an Indian linkage into this kidnapping. It is very, very unfortunate. I cannot go into the details at this stage, but we are investigating it''. Maj. Gen. Qureshi hoped that like the other incidents `orchestrated' in the past, the kidnapping case does not end as a ``stage-managed show to defame Pakistan''. He said the police had arrested a suspect, Mubarak Ali Gilani, and got substantial leads during the interrogation.
Mr. Pearl, who was investigating a story on the links of Al-Qaeda, is supposed to have met Mr. Gilani before he disappeared in Karachi. Mr. Pearl had also been accused of being an Israeli agent. The kidnappers have warned other U.S. journalists in Pakistan to leave the country within three days or risk being targeted.
Meanwhile, a report in a Pakistan English daily said that the prime suspect in the kidnapping case was found dead by a police team which had gone to Ahmedpur East in Punjab to arrest him. The Inspector-General Police, Sindh Syed Kamal Shah, identified him as Aarif.
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