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Silence
On Abducted U.S. Journalist as Second Deadline Passes
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| Pearl's
kidnappers demands U.S. free Pakistani prisoners held in
Cuba, better treatment to others in detention.
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KARACHI,
Feb 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A second deadline for the
execution of the kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl passed
Friday without word from his captors, as Pakistan upped its claims
of Indian involvement, news agencies reported.
Foreign
Minister Abdul Sattar said during a visit to Berlin that mobile
phone records of an Islamic activist leader being held over Pearl's
disappearance showed contacts with Indian government officials,
according to AFP.
Sattar's
claim came after Pakistan's military spokesman Major General Rashid
Qureshi said Thursday there was an "Indian link" to
Pearl's abduction, prompting a swift denial from New Delhi.
Pearl,
38, a Wall Street Journal reporter, disappeared in this southern
port city after telling his wife he was going to interview Mubarak
Ali Shah Gilani, leader of the little known Muslim group
Tanzeem-ul-Fuqra.
"Among
these numbers are those of three prominent Indian
personalities," Abdul Sattar told reporters in Berlin,
declining to identify the Indians, and prompting an immediate
challenge from New Delhi to name names.
"Let
them come up with the names," said Indian foreign ministry
spokeswoman Nirupama Rao, while another ministry spokesman dismissed
Sattar's comments as "a great charade."
A
hitherto unknown group calling itself the "National Movement
for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty" had threatened to
kill Pearl by 1135 GMT Friday, a 24-hour extension of their original
deadline. But the deadline passed with no reported fresh
announcement from the group.
In
e-mails sent to newspapers, containing photos of Pearl in captivity,
the group has demanded the U.S. free Pakistanis held among the
prisoners at its naval base in Cuba, and provide better treatment to
others in detention there.
Pakistani
police said Friday that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) had quizzed Gilani, who has denied any involvement in the
journalist's abduction.
"Some
FBI people have interrogated Gilani, but not formally. They put
certain questions to him in connection with the case," a senior
Karachi police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Gilani
has been undergoing "intense interrogation" since he was
arrested in the northern city of Rawalpindi on Wednesday and brought
to Karachi, police said.
A
U.S. embassy spokesman in Islamabad was unable to confirm FBI
involvement. "The U.S. government has people, who are based
here, working with the Pakistani authorities. I don't specifically
know from which agencies," he told AFP.
U.S.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday that the
U.S. was assisting Pakistani authorities in the investigation.
"We
are assisting them, U.S. law enforcement officials are assisting
them," he told reporters during a press briefing. "The
cooperation is very close, and as the Secretary told you, the senior
Pakistani officials are interested and involved."
However,
Boucher said he could not give more details on the progress of this
assisted investigation.
"I'm
not going to comment on the process of investigation, on the
progress of the investigation," he said. "I don't think
I'm in a position to tell you everything about what we know, about
groups or an ongoing investigation. So I'm going to have to believe
that it wouldn't be in the best interests of Mr. Pearl for us to do
that."
The
Pakistani local daily The News, quoting an unnamed police source,
reported that an FBI agent and a U.S. diplomat had interrogated
Gilani for more than three hours on Thursday.
Police
have said they know nothing about the group claiming to hold Pearl,
beyond what they have read in their e-mail messages.
U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has spoken to Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf about the abduction, and ruled out any negotiations
with the kidnappers.
"The
demands that the kidnappers have placed are not demands that we can
meet or deal with or get into a negotiation about," Powell said
in Washington, rejecting claims the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, were being maltreated.
"We
are treating them in accordance with international norms and all of
the agreements we are party to," he said.
Boucher
on Thursday reiterated the U.S. position on Pearl's captivity.
"Mr. Pearl should be released immediately and
unconditionally," Boucher said. "His continued detention
is no help to any cause. "This continuing to hold him,
threatening to kill him would only hurt the people who are holding
him.
"He
is a Wall Street Journal reporter, and he should be released
immediately and unconditionally. He is a respected journalist. He
has no connection with the U.S. government," Boucher said.
Wall
Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger thanked the captors for
their extension of their initial Thursday 1135 GMT deadline by
"one more day."
"I
also hope that you and we can use that time to start a true
dialogue," Steiger said in an open letter e-mailed to the
captors. In an earlier e-mail Steiger urged them to use Pearl as a
"messenger" to air their grievances to the world. Steiger
has insisted Pearl was not, as the kidnappers claim, a spy for any
government.
Police
have raided religious seminaries in the Punjab and North West
Frontier provinces in an unsuccessful hunt for another suspect,
Mohammad Bashir.
The
family of a third suspect, Arif, claims he mysteriously died in
Afghanistan before police could question him.
With additional reporting by Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Correspondent
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