India on Friday said that the murderers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had received support from Pakistan and had taken shelter in that country. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao said, "This (the murder) has once gain drawn the attention to the criminal forces of terror that continue to operate in Pakistani territory".
"These terrorists, who continue to pursue their agenda through mindless violence, have received support and safe haven in Pakistan", she said. Describing Pearl's murder as "an act of terror", Rao said it was brutal and senseless on the terrorists' part to commit this heinous crime. "India is deeply saddened by the death of Pearl", she added.
Pearl was abducted more than a month ago in Pakistan and killed by his Muslim extremist abductors. They had claimed that his being a correspondent was just a cover-up for his real identity, as they believed he worked for the CIA and the Mossad – Israel’s Intelligence. His abductors had claimed he was on a mission to gather secret information, which, according to them, was sent to Israel and the United States.
Daniel Pearl was 38 years old when he was killed in Pakistan. His parents, Ruth and Judea Pearl are Israeli scientists, who reside for many years in Princeton in the United States, where their son Daniel was born. They are all citizens of Israel.
Professor Pearl is one of the prominent scientists in the world in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Following the abduction of his son Daniel, media organizations throughout the world hid this fact, and in several Internet sites, pages had been changed, so that Daniel’s abductors would not know this fact regarding him, however, apparently, that had not helped Daniel and he was eventually murdered.
Pearl's abduction on January 23 prompted appeals from high-ranking U.S. and Pakistani officials for his release, and resulted in the arrests of several people believed to have been involved in the kidnapping, including the alleged ringleader, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, an Islamic militant who was released from an Indian jail in 1999 as part of a deal to end a plane hijacking, according to CNN.
Another arrested suspect told a Pakistani court Thursday that Pearl was seized because he was "anti-Islam and a Jew." Fahad Naseem, who said he knew of plans of the abduction two days in advance, confessed to sending e-mails about Pearl's abduction according to Saeed Sheikh's instructions and revealed the roles of others in custody and some still at large, authorities said.
The e-mails contained photographs of Pearl in captivity and demands for the release of Pakistani detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, where captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are being held.
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's President, sent his condolences to Pearl's family, pledged to find the reporter's killers and said he would not relent in his month-old crackdown on militant groups, which some believe may have been the impetus for the kidnapping.
Meanwhile, Peter R. Kann, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Paul E. Steiger, the paper's managing editor, said in a joint statement, "(Pearl's) murder is an act of barbarism that makes a mockery of everything Danny's kidnappers claimed to believe in."
His parents issued a statement from Encino, California, praising their boy as "a beloved son, a brother, an uncle, a husband and a father to a child who will never know him." Pearl was the middle child of three.
The reporter was lured from his Karachi apartment last month following a tip from a source regarding his research on a story about possible links between accused terrorist Richard Reid and Osama bin Laden's network al Qaeda. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
