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Two more held in Pearl case
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, FEB. 10. The Pakistan police have arrested two more persons in connection with the abduction of American journalist, Daniel Pearl, though the search for the missing scribe has so far proved to be futile.
The Islamabad police senior Superintendent, Nasir Khan Durrani, said the two men were taken into custody in the capital in recent days. With this, the total number of those arrested in the case has gone up to 16.
``They have been detained for verification of some reports. The arrests relate to some phone calls they made from a mobile telephone set'', he said.
The Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider, has for the first time conceded that Omar Sheikh, one of the three militants released by India in December 1999 in exchange for the freedom of the hijacked Indian Airlines passengers, is the main suspect in the case.
It seems the biggest worry for the authorities in Pakistan is the total silence of the kidnappers for the last several days. Police said they have had no contact with Pearl's kidnappers for the last 11 days. ``They (the kidnappers) have suddenly turned silent'', Lt. Gen. (retd) Haider told Pakistan Television late on Saturday. ``They are now neither sending any e-mail nor using any telephone because we have arrested three of their people and we have found the clues.''
PTI reports:
Police officials in Karachi have expressed serious doubts over allegations of ``Indian links'' to the kidnapping of Mr. Pearl.
According to The News daily, police investigators, with the help of the FBI, had established that the three Indian telephone numbers called from the cell phone that was used to lure Mr. Pearl to a Karachi restaurant, were of an Indian Cabinet Minister and two Members of Parliament in New Delhi. But it was later found that the Indian telephone numbers were listed on an Indian website and it appeared that the calls to New Delhi were made to deceive the investigators, the newspaper said.
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