The Washington Post
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani investigators arrested several people Tuesday in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and said they are close to cracking the case and hopeful that the journalist, missing since Jan. 23, is still alive.
Despite nearly a week without any contact from Pearl’s kidnappers, the top law enforcement officer in the southern province of Sindh told reporters Tuesday, “Daniel Pearl is alive, I’m sure.” The official, Muktar Ahmad Sheikh, added that investigators believe they know who abducted Pearl in Karachi, the provincial capital, and said: “We are very, very close to solving this case. It could be today or tomorrow.”
In the interview with reporters Tuesday in his Karachi office, Sheikh offered few specifics to support his feelings of confidence, although investigators have previously identified three key suspects believed to have links to Islamic militant groups in Pakistan. At the time of his disappearance, Pearl was working on a story about the alleged Pakistani connections of suspected terrorist Richard Reid, and he had gone to a restaurant in Karachi in hopes of arranging an interview with a Muslim cleric.
Late Tuesday, investigators said they had arrested two men suspected of sending e-mail on behalf of the kidnappers. Both are linked to a banned Islamic militant group, Jaish-i-Muhammad. The men, identified only as Fawad and Salman, were arrested in an eastern suburb of Karachi, and a computer and photo scanner were seized. In addition, family members of a Jaish leader, Sheik Omar, were arrested in Karachi and Lahore, investigators said.
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