‘Catch 22’ for police as Pearl’s killer held
KARACHI- Despite the arrest of two persons — directly involved in the alleged kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl — at least two days ago, the Sindh police bosses were weighing their options till Friday night before they formally arrest these two individuals in the Pearl case, according to senior officials close to the investigation of the case.
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) branch of Sindh police is holding a banned anti-Shia religious organization’s two unidentified militant members, who not only pinpointed the Gulzare Hijri compound from where the decapitated body of Daniel Pearl was recovered Friday, but also provided graphic details of their involvement in the murder and subsequent decapitation of the body of the Wall Street Journal reporter about one week after his kidnapping in Karachi on January 23.
The Pearl case took a dramatic turn on Thursday, officials said, when the sensational arrest of an alleged Pearl killer was kept secret even from the team of Crime Investigation Department (CID) officials who had investigated the Pearl case since January.
The police strategy was finalised in a meeting held under Inspector General Police (IGP) Syed Kamal Shah at his residence 2 am Friday. “The same CID department of Sindh police now has two set of versions and accused in the Pearl kidnapping case,” conceded a knowledgeable official.
Such was the confusion that despite the arrest of two persons who had categorically acknowledged their direct involvement in the kidnapping, murder and burial of body parts of Daniel Pearl, the police Friday showed the recovery of decapitated body from a Gulzare Hijri nursery on the pointation of “an informant”. Police officials consider the recovery of the body on the pointation of self-confessed accused before a magistrate as the most damning evidence that will surely take the accused to the gallows.
These arrests, yet to be made public, have also yielded” considerable quantity” of explosives and some hazardous chemical that may also be used as weapon in closed surroundings. Their interrogation has also provided first solid evidence of al-Qaeda’s penetration in local religious groups.
The two arrested persons have spoken about the presence of numerous al-Qaeda individuals who besides their native Arabic speak Pushto fluently. Most of them are believed to be living in the Sohrab Goth and Gulzare Hijri areas of Karachi.
“Their arrest and statements made before some police officials carry serious implication for the prosecution’s case already presented before the anti-terrorism court,” according to an informed official.
None of the two persons, now being detained by the police, was listed as accused in the police challan of Pearl kidnapping and murder case presented before the trial court in March. Seven individuals have been listed by the police as absconders in the Pearl case, but none of those names appeared in the informal statements made by the two recently arrested persons.
“The main problem is that some of the details presented in the police case are much different from the account provided by the two detained persons,” according to an official. For instance, an official said that these two individuals do not cite the presence of Omar Sheikh at the time of kidnapping and the murder of Daniel Pearl. Police had produced a taxi driver named Nasir Abbas as its key witness for Omar Sheikh’s personal presence at the time of Pearl’s kidnapping from outside the Village Garden restaurant. These individuals, however, acknowledged Sheikh’s personal involvement in planning Pearl’s kidnapping, but they gave the name of an individual, Omar, as the person actively involved in sending e-mails on Pearl’s kidnapping to the international media.
Police sources said that Omar carries a head money of half a million rupees for his alleged involvement in the murder of various Shia notables. They have also given a picture of the scene of kidnapping much different from the scene portrayed in the police challan.
Officials said that Danny was driven from Village Garden restaurant to Gulzare Hijri, where he was murdered seven days later, in a red Suzuki Alto. One of the two persons who confessed to have slit Pearl’s throat said that he had to do that particular act twice because on the first occasion the video camera had failed to catch the shot because of a technical glitch. “That’s why in the video you didn’t see the blood oozing out of his neck, I had to work hard to keep the neck together so that it doesn’t become obvious in the film that I am slitting an already cut throat,” the alleged Pearl killer told his interrogators.
Source: The News
Date:5/18/2002
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