Pakistani police named three suspected kidnappers of US journalist Daniel Pearl. Police said two militants, Mohammad Hashim Qadeer and Mohammad Bashir, were the "prime suspects so far" believed to have kidnapped Pearl in this southern city. "We will only come to know the extent of their involvement once they are arrested," police said. Investigators also named Imtiaz Siddiqui, who was supposed to have met Pearl on the day he disappeared, as a third suspect. Three other men were detained in Lahore for questioning. But hopes for a breakthrough in the hunt were tempered by Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, who said the search was not progressing very far.
When you're afraid of what you're going to find, you don't look as hard as you might otherwise.
According to sources, the US investigators are working on a theory that the Pearl kidnapping was carried out by renegade elements of the ISI. The investigators demanded, and received, a list of ISI operatives who had served in the agency's Afghan cell in the past five years. As a result, several people have been detained, including an important former ISI official, Khalid Khawaja. The detainees are being interrogated by agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Khalid, the sources say, had been involved with the ISI's Afghanistan operations before his retirement. Even after his retirement, he had been in contact with Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. He may or may not be involved in the Pearl kidnapping, but it is said that he has information that, if divulged, would deal a blow to Pakistani secret service operations in Kashmir and their spy network still operating in Afghanistan.
Didn't think it was run of the mill loons. Heard a report on FoxNews that Harkut ul Mujaheddin is suspected. |