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Pakistani Authorities Call E-mails Concerning Pearl “Fake”
By Aamir Latif
IOL correspondent in Pakistan
KARACHI, Feb. 5 (IslamOnline) - Pakistani investigation authorities Tuesday dubbed 8 out of 10 emails sent by different people to US embassy and newspaper organizations in connection with kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl as “fake”. However, the authorities say the two emails containing pictures of the abducted reporter seemed to be “genuine”.
Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl went missing in the southern city of Karachi on January 23, 2002 as he attempted to make contact with some Islamic groups. “Most of the emails were sent by school students or common citizens who seem to have no particular object except for the sake of excitement,” a senior Karachi police officer told Islam Online.
Police also released a school student, Haris and his uncle, who (Haris) sent an email from his uncle’s computer to various Pakistani and foreign newspapers asking for 20 million dollars ransom for the release of Pearl. Haris was arrested from Lahore on Saturday along with his uncle and they were brought to southern city of Karachi for interrogation.
However, they were released on Tuesday after a “strict warning” to the father of Haris, who reached Karachi to take his son to his hometown, police said. During investigations, Haris, a student of grade 10 at a local school confessed that he had sent an email to about a dozen local and foreign newspapers from his uncles’ computer “just for the sake of excitement and create sensation,” police added.
“We have so far interrogated 10 people, mostly students in connection with this case. Some of them confessed that they had sent emails to newspapers just for enjoyment. Therefore, they have been released after a stern warning was issued to their parents,” the official said.
Police claimed it had reached the ISP from where the email containing pictures of Pearl was sent. However, it is still trying to identify the server system which was used.
It said it had identified three main suspects in the hunt for the kidnapped U.S. reporter. "We have identified three main suspects in Pearl's case and if we manage to catch any one of them it will lead us to resolve this case," a senior police official told IslamOnline.
The official named the three men as Hashim Qadir, Imtiaz Siddiqui and Bashir and said they had been involved in helping Pearl arrange meetings at the time of his disappearance. According to the official, the detained key suspect in Pearl’s kidnapping, Sheikh Mubarak Gilani had told the investigation authorities that he never met the Wall Street Journal reporter.
Meanwhile, Karachi police have registered a case against unknown culprits for kidnapping Pearl on Tuesday. Pearl’s wife Mariana Pearl went to a local police station to lodge the case.
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