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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is dead, officials confirm |
| 2002-02-21 |
| Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped last month on his way to interview a Muslim fundamentalist leader in Pakistan, has been killed by his abductors, officials said Thursday. The U.S. government condemned his killing as "an outrage" and his newspaper called it an "act of barbarism." FBI and Pakistani officials said they received a videotape containing "indisputable" confirmation that the 38-year-old Pearl had been killed. A spokesman for the Home Government Department of the province of Sindh said authorities received the tape around 11 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EST) and it "contained scenes showing Mr. Daniel Pearl in captivity and scenes of his murder by the kidnappers." It's not clear exactly when he may have been killed. The tape was apparently sent to the Sindh Home Government Department, and Pakistan officials delivered it to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, where it was viewed by FBI officials. Earlier, a U.S. official told CNN that two Pakistani men approached a Pakistani journalist with the tape, and a U.S. law enforcement agent acquired it. Pearl's January 23 abduction prompted appeals from top U.S. and Pakistani officials for his release, and resulted in the arrests of several people believed to have been involved in the kidnapping -- including the man Pakistani officials identified as the ringleader, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. "We now believe, based on reports from the U.S. State Department and police officials of the Pakistani province of Sind, that Danny Pearl was killed by his captors. We are heartbroken at his death," said Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. "Danny was an outstanding colleague, a great reporter, and a dear friend of many at the Journal. His murder is an act of barbarism that makes a mockery of everything Danny's kidnappers claimed to believe in," Steiger said. |
| Posted by:Fred |