KARACHI, 10 February — Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider yesterday ruled out any negotiations with the kidnappers of US reporter Daniel Pearl, who have eluded investigators for 17 days. “There is no negotiation and there will be no negotiations,” the minister told reporters when asked about the possibility.
A previously unheard-of group claiming to hold Pearl had demanded the release of the Taleban’s former ambassador to Pakistan and Pakistani prisoners held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Haider said authorities had no proof that Pearl was still alive. “No we don’t have any evidence,” he replied when asked.
Police have formally arrested and charged three men who admitted to sending the e-mails.
The three, including a former police intelligence officer and two cousins linked to the banned extremist group Jaish-e-Muhammad, said British-born Sheikh Omar ordered them to send the e-mails.
Police have named Omar as the mastermind of the abduction and say he is a leader of Jaish, although the group’s spokesman has denied any link to Omar or Pearl’s disappearance.
Investigators said yesterday they were putting pressure on Omar’s family in the hope this would lead them to the kidnapped reporter.
At the same time they are continuing to question suspects and raid houses.
“Sheikh Omar is the prime suspect in Pearl’s kidnapping and we are trying to arrest him,” Haider told reporters last night, the first time a senior government official has publicly named Omar.
“We are hopeful that Pearl is alive and we will recover him safely,” he said. “I cannot give you any time frame. All I can say, we are trying our best for Pearl’s safe recovery.”
Police have detained Omar’s uncle and several other relatives, a common tactic employed by the police to flush out suspects who have gone into hiding.
“Omar left Lahore 18 days ago with his wife and child and he had not been heard of since then according to family members,” a senior police officer said.
Other angles were also being followed, investigators said. President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with the Washington Post, said Indian intelligence agencies were also suspected of involvement, a charge India has dismissed.
“It’s very much a possibility that it has been done by the Indians, orchestrated by the Indians. That’s what we are looking into,” Musharraf told the newspaper in an interview published yesterday.
Musharraf, speaking just before leaving Pakistan for the United States, said that “indirect indications” suggested Omar could have been acting in concert with India, the Post reported.
