| Sovereignty." He was in
Pakistan researching a story on Richard Reid, the man suspected of trying
to set off explosives hidden in his shoes while aboard an airplane.
Through a series of e-mails,
the kidnappers have demanded the release of all captured Pakistanis and
also warned other American reporters to leave Pakistan within three days,
which would be Saturday.
Meanwhile, a person who apparently
helped arrange an interview for Pearl with the religious leader of a fundamentalist
Muslim group is dead, the inspector general of the Karachi police said
Thursday.
Inspector General Syed Kamal
Shah identified the man, who died Wednesday, as Arif and said police don't
know how or why he died.
Pearl was abducted while
on his way to that interview, which he believed was to be with Sheikh Mubarik
ali Gilani, the head of Jamaat ul-Fuqra group, about Reid, the shoe bombing
suspect now in jail in the United States.
A spokesman for Gilani's
group denied any involvement in the kidnapping, and a friend of the sheikh,
Khalid Khwaja, told CNN no arrangements had ever been made with Pearl,
and there are no connections between the kidnappers and Gilani, nor any
with Reid. Nonetheless, Gilani turned himself in to police Wednesday.
Pakistani police announced
Thursday they have taken three additional men into custody after tracing
their cell phone calls. The police said nothing further about progress
in the case.
In his appeal for Pearl's
release, Steiger, Wall Street Journal managing editor, wrote: "Killing
Danny will achieve nothing for you. His murder would be condemned by the
entire world, and your group would be viewed as murderers without serious
political objectives.
"Only through Danny's safe
release can your group have the opportunity to tell your side of the story
and to have the entire world focus on your words."
Steiger proposed the group
"view Danny as a messenger," giving him a list of issues and grievances
and allowing Pearl to make them public.
Steiger's statement was sent
to international media outlets in hopes of making it public because the
kidnapper's e-mail address, printed in newspaper reports when the story
first emerged, has been swamped with incoming messages and rendered inaccessible.
'Indian connection'
Pakistani officials say
they are making progress in the case, with foreign ministry spokesman Aziz
Ahmed Khan stating on Thursday that he holds some hope of success.
"The government of Pakistan
is making every effort possible for the release of the journalist," Khan
said. "There is some progress being made."
At an earlier briefing Major
General Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Pakistan's president, said there
was an Indian connection to Pearl's disappearance but would not say what
that link was.
In New Delhi, an Indian foreign
ministry spokeswoman said the assertion was ridiculous.
"This is just one more example
of the Pakistani military establishment imagination running riot. What
else can one say? It has the stamp of ridiculous written all over it,"
she said.
Pakistani police announced
Thursday that they have taken three additional men into custody after tracing
their cell phone calls.
The police said nothing further
about progress in the case.
That brings to at least four
the number of people being held in connection with the case.
Pakistani authorities are
also holding the head of the fundamentalist Islamic Jamaat ul-Fuqra group,
Sheikh Mubarik ali Gilani -- the man whom Pearl was going to meet on January
23 when he was abducted -- after he turned himself in on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Gilani's
group denied involvement in the kidnapping, and a friend of the sheikh,
Khalid Khwaja, told CNN no arrangements had ever been made with Pearl.
Spy claims
In the captor's first e-mail
over the weekend, it claimed Pearl, 38, was a CIA agent, an accusation
denied by U.S. officials and the Wall Street Journal.
In an e-mail Wednesday, the
kidnappers said they had determined that Pearl does not work for the CIA,
but "in fact he is working for the Mossad," the Israeli intelligence agency
-- a claim denied by Israeli officials. |
