The Hindu : America will suffer if I am extradited: Omar Sheikh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002

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America will suffer if I am extradited: Omar Sheikh
By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 12. Omar Sheikh, main suspect in the Daniel Pearl abduction case, today told the judge of an anti-terrorism court in Karachi that he would ``harm the interests of the United States'' if he were to be extradited there.

Seeking extension of his remand for the third time, police produced him before the court. The judge extended the remand for 10 more days with a rider that it was for the last time that he was granting extension.

Reports from Karachi said that Omar Sheikh was gagged by police as he emerged from a Pakistan remand court shouting ``Allahu Akbar'' and ``Down with America.''

British-born militant Omar Sheikh, also implied that his extradition would lead to a hijacking or similar act to win his freedom.

``Omar told the judge that if he is sent to the U.S., then he will return in the same way as he returned from India. He told the judge that America would suffer if he is extradited,'' Raja Quereshi, Advocate-General of the Sindh province, told presspersons in Karachi.

Omar Sheikh, along with the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, is among the three militants freed by India in December 1999 in exchange for the freedom of the passengers on board the Indian Airlines plane hijacked from Kathmandu.

Omar Sheikh's threat is to be seen in the backdrop of a formal U.S. request for his extradition. Reports from Washington suggest that the U.S. Justice Department has indicted him in connection with the kidnap of an American tourist in India in 1994.

Omar Sheikh is the main accused in the kidnapping of The Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, who was subsequently brutally murdered. Pearl was abducted in Karachi when he was investigating Al-Qaeda's links in the city.

Two weeks ago, the Pakistan police had sought extension of Omar Sheikh's remand on the plea that they needed him to recover the body of Pearl as well as the weapons used to murder him. Another suspect in the case, Sheikh Adil, was also remanded to police custody for a further 10 days. The two men are among the four suspects being held in connection with the case.

Sheikh Adil, Salman Saquib and Fahad Naseem have been accused of sending two e-mail messages in January containing photographs of Pearl being held hostage.

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