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Suspense persists over Pearl's fate
By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 16. The fate of the abducted Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, continues to be in suspense even as Pakistan's police question more suspects and raid more hideouts.

A day after the Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider, predicted a ``major breakthrough'', in the next 24 to 48 hours, investigators had nothing dramatic to report. Of course, they continue to be hopeful of an early end to the ordeal of Mr. Pearl, who went missing from Karachi on January 23. Reports from Karachi said the police had arrested four more suspects and raided several houses. It appears they are looking for Mansur Hasnain, another accomplice of Omar Sheikh.

A section of the media here had claimed on Friday that during interrogation Omar Sheikh had pointed the finger at Hasnain as the main person who executed the abduction of Mr. Pearl.

Hasnain, known to Mr. Pearl as Imtiaz Siddiqui, is believed to have phoned the American reporter twice before he disappeared on January 23. Siddiqui, who police believe is still holding Mr. Pearl, promised to take him to interview an unidentified Islamic leader, and arranged to meet him outside a restaurant on a busy street in central Karachi.

The Interior Minister had repeated on Friday that Mr. Pearl's abduction was the `handiwork of foreign elements' who wanted to embarrass the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, during his official visit to the United States.

However the authorities investigating the case have not given any such hints. All indications suggest that the kidnap could have been engineered by elements agitated over the U.S. action in Afghanistan. Media reports said Siddiqui could be a member of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a group outlawed by the U.S.

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