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Pakistani
Airline Denies Recovery Of U.S. Journalist
By
Aamir Latif
IOL
Pakistan correspondent
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Daniel Pearl still not
recovered |
KARACHI,
Feb. 10 (IslamOnline) - Pakistan International Airline officials Saturday denied
the reports that U.S. kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl had been recovered and
was scheduled to leave Islamabad for the United Kingdom Saturday morning.
Pakistan's
English-language daily newspaper, Dawn, quoted some documentary evidence
Saturday that Daniel Pearl was booked on PIA flight PK-757 for London which left
Islamabad at 0910 hours. His ticket number was T-214201897654. The booking was
made on February 4.
A
PIA spokesman told IslamOnline that the Dawn's report was the result of a
misunderstanding. He said the passenger who travelled on the respective flight
was a British citizen named " Danian Pearl", not Daniel Pearl. The
resemblace in names caused the misunderstanding, he added.
Danian
Pearl is a humanitarian aid worker who has been working in Afghanistan for the
last few months. He arrived in Islamabad Friday night from Kabul by a U.N.
flight, the spokesman said.
Dawn
claimed that Daniel Pearl was recovered Friday morning and was immediately
handed over to the U.S. officials involved in the investigation and recovery of
the missing journalist.
DIG
(Operations) Karachi, Tariq Jamil told reporters that police did not know
anything about Daniel Pearl's recovery. "He could be some other Daniel who
is booked on the flight," Tariq Jamil said. Earlier, the DIG had said:
"These reports (about Pearl's recovery) are baseless."
He
went on to add that the investigations into the case were still being carried
out and he hoped for the good.
Daniel
Pearl, a U.S. journalist working for the Wall Street Journal, paid three visits
to Karachi during two months. Daniel was seen last near the Metropole Hotel and
later he went missing on January 23.
Meanwhile,
police formally arrested three suspects late Friday for their alleged
involvement in the kidnapping of the U.S. journalist.
A
senior police official said Salman, Fahad and Adil, who had been picked up from
Gulistan-i-Johar, confessed to having sent e-mails attached with photographs of
Daniel Pearl to the media at the request of a key suspect, Ahmed Umer Shaikh.
"We have got substantial evidence and recorded the statements of the
suspect which are enough to take their remand from a court concerned for further
investigation," he added.
The
police were also looking for three other suspects - Hashim Qadeer, Mohammad
Bashir and Imtiaz Siddique - who had earlier been thought to be the main
suspects. Sources said Imtiaz was an impostor and he was in fact Umer Shaikh.
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