Pearl’s fate hangs in balance
KARACHI- The fate of the kidnapped US journalist, Daniel Pearl, continues to be uncertain as the police remained groping in the dark to find a clue to his captors on Friday.
“There is no major development in the investigation,” Sindh police chief Syed Kamal Shah said during a telephonic conversation from Lahore. He said there were some disclosures from key suspect Omar Shaikh as he had named some more suspects during the interrogation.
To a question whether the purpose of his (Shah’s) visit to Lahore was to make arrest of a suspect in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case, he said: “We are looking for more people and not only one. As and when there is any major development, we will share it with you (the press).”
Referring to some reports about a person, who was named by Omar and might be one of the captors, he said the police were investigating into the case and some names had emerged as suspects. However, at this stage, their identity could not be disclosed because the suspects might become alert, which could have adverse effect on the investigation process, he remarked.
Meanwhile, Karachi Deputy Inspector General (DIG) (Operation) Tariq Jamil said: “We still have no evidence to believe that Daniel Pearl is dead.”
He said the investigators were continuously trying to extract the identification of the captors of Pearl from Omar but he had persistently been evading the question. “There is no further success,” he added.
The police sources said Omar had been consistently retracting his statements in order to create confusion and divert the attention of the investigators. However, he had disclosed some more names and places, where the police had conducted raids and picked up some people, who were being extensively interrogated.
They did not mention the exact number of suspects in custody, but said there were more than two dozen suspects, who were being interrogated. The raids at various places, they said, were not confined only to Karachi, but were being conducted at several places in other cities of the country.
Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal, reporter was seen last near the Metropole Hotel here on Jan 23.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/16/2002
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