India - Pakistan Crisis

Top 116. Feb 26, 2002 9:13 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Farhan Malik aka Aftab Ansari

In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:

from Steven's list:

Farhan Malik --------------------------- India PRISONER extradited from Dubai, UAE February 9, 2002; arrest warrant issued by Interpol January 25, 2002; called Calcutta police to claim responsibility for the Calcutta shooting and vowed more attacks; was wanted in Calcutta drive-by shooting mass murder January 22, 2001; linked to Saeed Sheikh who funded Mohamed Atta in 9/11 attack; collected $100,000 ransom August 2001 in kidnapping of Calcutta businessman; crime boss with ties to Pakistan Intelligence agencies; fled to Dubai after he jumped bail in India
aka Aftab Ansari, an Indian national, heads a group India suspects of carrying out the shooting of police that killed five and wounded 20 outside the American Center in Calcutta. India's Central Bureau of Investigation said Saeed Sheikh had helped Aftab Ansari, also known as Farhan Malik, flee to Dubai after jumping bail in India.

Now extradited from Dubai and imprisoned in India - Ansari's talking .... two articles from The Times of India:

Aftab Ansari trained in Pak terror camps

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2002 11:24:23 PM ]

Notorious underworld don Aftab Ansari has confessed to the police that he got training in terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan. He also had close links with heads of some terrorist outfits.

Ansari said he had come in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammed leaders Mauland Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and others while he was in the Tihar jail from 1995 to 1998, but after his trip to Pakistan he got closer with them.

He got terrorist training with Faud Ulla, a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Bahabulpur area near Rawalpindi. He visited the camp in the deserts on many occasions. In these camps, he had seen many Kashmiri Muslim youths taking training, he told the police.

The police believe he had a major role in the attack on American Center in Kolkata. Ansari, however, has denied any role in the September 11 attack. But he confirmed that his close friend Asif Razak Khan, who was killed in an encounter with the Rajkot police, was involved in jehadi activities.

Meanwhile, the police have decided to tape Ansari, and send it to the Forensic Science Laboratory for voice analysis, along with the taped conversation with Brabhudas Parekh, father of Bhaskar who was kidnapped.

The police were keen to ascertain if the voices matched. Bhaskar's kidnapper claimed to be calling from Dubai, and used the name Amitabh to demand for ransom.

Ansari, ISI darling, now its biggest enemy

PTI [ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2002 10:05:26 AM ]

Aftab Ansari, the prize catch of the CBI in the Kolkata American Centre attack case, has become a target of Pakistan's ISI after he spilled the beans by exposing the hawala racket used to send funds to sponsor anti-national activities.

A wireless intercept suggested that ISI has directed some of its conduits in the country as well as neighbouring Nepal to eliminate Ansari at any cost, intelligence sources said.

Ansari, presently in the custody of Rajkot police in Gujarat in connection with a spate of kidnappings in the region, has been provided additional guards while being taken to the court of First Class Judicial Magistrate in Radhanpura, the sources said.

The wireless message intercepted in Jassar area of Gujarat suggested that some professional killers from the underworld gangs had been hired to kill Ansari.

Ansari had revealed to CBI his connection with hawala operators in the national capital, Bhopal, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Lucknow.

A wireless intercept suggested that ISI has directed some of its conduits in the country as well as neighbouring Nepal to eliminate Ansari at any cost, intelligence sources said.

IMHO - The Pak ISI will also have the Pearl abduction suspects "eliminated" before they'd give them up to the U.S., Britain or India for interrogation .....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 117. Feb 26, 2002 9:26 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Gunmen Kill 9 in the mosque

In response to message posted by sillyme101:

Sil - you said....

I hope Musharif can control these zealots and does not blame the Indian "hidden hand" and move on to cover it up with PR.

This from 2/27 The Times of India:

Musharraf cites radicals for Pak mosque attack

REUTERS [ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2002 5:24:38 AM ]

President Pervez Musharraf blamed opponents of his war on terrorism for an attack on a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Rawalpindi on Tuesday that killed 10 people and wounded 15.

Musharraf was swift to condemn the attack in the mainly Sunni Muslim country and blamed extremist groups for the second killing of Shi'ites in less than a week.

Doctors at Rawalpindi's Holy Family Hospital, just outside the Pakistan capital of Islamabad, said they were overwhelmed by the number of dead and wounded from the Shah-i-Najf mosque.

"We have 10 dead and at least 15 wounded," a police spokesman said. At least eight of the wounded were in critical condition, according to one doctor.

Police said three gunmen had opened fire on worshippers during evening prayers. One witness said there were up to 40 worshippers in the mosque at the time.

"It was a sudden firing and many of us immediately lay on the floor," one of the wounded, Anjum Abbass, told Reuters.

Shabbir Zaki, caretaker of the mosque, said two gunmen wearing shirts and baggy trousers entered the mosque hall and started hurling abuse at worshippers as they prayed.

"Suddenly they opened fire," Zaki said. "As soon as the shooting started, the worshippers, who were up to 40, lay on the ground to save themselves.

"There were screams and groaning of wounded all over," the caretaker said. "There were pools of blood all over the hall...it was a horrible scene."

Crackdown on extremism vowed

Musharraf reiterated his government would remain firm in its resolve to stamp out extremism.

"Groups opposed to the government's policy of fighting against terrorism are out to distract it from pursuing its (policy) vigorously," he said in a statement released by the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

Rawalpindi's Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Fareed Nawaz, also condemned the attack.

"This is terrorism, not sectarianism," Nawaz said. "They used automatic weapons, which we believe were Kalashnikovs."

Shi'ite political leaders added their voices denouncing the attack as a blow to Pakistan, not to relations between the two wings of Islam.

"This is not a Shi'ite and Sunni fight. It's a conspiracy against Shi'ite and Sunni. And through this plan they are trying to provoke both sides," said Syed Razi Rizvi, head of the Shi'ite group Tehrike-e-Jafria Pakistan.

Hamid Ali Mousvi, another Shi'ite political leader, agreed.

"Anyone who tries to create a fight between the two groups is not a friend of Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, is not a friend of Islam and Pakistan -- he is our biggest enemy."

The attack underscores the problems Musharraf faces in reining in militant groups in a country of 140 million where Shi'ites account for about 15 percent of the population.

In 2001, sectarian violence killed 400 people, mainly in attacks on places of worship.

But Musharraf also faces the wrath of Islamic groups opposing his support of the United States in its war against terror in Afghanistan and elsewhere. That rage was highlighted on Tuesday by shots fired at a U.S. military plane as it came in to land at a Pakistani airfield.

The aircraft was not hit and there was no damage or casualties at the airfield, used as a U.S. logistics base for the war in Afghanistan and site of previous Islamic militant protests against Americans.

Sil - I don't understand the conflict between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims. Can you explain it a little? TIA.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Security Tightened at Jail Holding Pearl Suspect

Top 118. Feb 27, 2002 9:11 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Pearl Abduction Investigation

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

from the article above about the interrogation in India of Aftab Ansari, who's talking about his connections to Pak ISI:

A wireless intercept suggested that ISI has directed some of its conduits in the country as well as neighbouring Nepal to eliminate Ansari at any cost, intelligence sources said.

I said ....IMHO - The Pak ISI will also have the Pearl abduction suspects "eliminated" before they'd give them up to the U.S., Britain or India for interrogation.

Yup it's happening already - from 2/27 Reuters:

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistan police beefed up security at a Karachi jail Wednesday after an anonymous phone call threatened a rocket attack if the man accused of being the ringleader of the kidnapping of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl was extradited, police sources said.

Sources said the phone call was received late Tuesday and the caller had threatened an attack on the detention center if Pakistan's military-led government bowed to a U.S. demand to extradite British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

"We have received a threatening phone call... and we have beefed up security around the detention center as a precautionary measure," said a police official, who declined to be named.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 119. Feb 27, 2002 4:49 PM

» BPyles - Terrorist attack in India

Mob Torches Indian Train; 57 Killed
Wed Feb 27, 2:26 PM ET

By Thomas Kutty Abraham

GODHRA, India (Reuters) - Fifty-seven people, mostly women and children, were burned alive when a trainload of Hindu activists was torched by a suspected Muslim mob in western India Wednesday, authorities said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appealed for calm and canceled a trip to Australia for a Commonwealth summit.

Hours after the morning attack in Godhra, police were still pulling charred bodies burned beyond recognition out of the blackened carriage of the Sabarmati Express in Gujarat state.

In what appeared to be retaliatory attacks, two men were stabbed to death in separate incidents in the same region and local police asked New Delhi for reinforcements after shops and buses were set ablaze in Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad
.
The Hindu activists were returning from the northern town of Ayodhya, where hard-line Hindus have been gathering to build a temple on the ruins of a mosque whose destruction a decade ago triggered riots in which more than 3,000 people died nationwide.

When asked by reporters if Muslims were responsible for the train attack, Raju Bhargava, police chief of Panchmahal district where the assault occurred, said: "It appears so."

He said the victims were 15 children, 25 women and 17 men.

"I heard screams for help as I came out of the house. I saw a huge ball of fire," said Rakesh Kimani, 18, who lives nearby.

"I saw...people putting out their hands and heads through the windows trying to escape. It was a horrible sight."

VAJPAYEE CANCELS VISIT

Following the surge in religious tensions, Vajpayee's spokesman Ashok Tandon said the prime minister would stay at home and that External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh would represent India at the Commonwealth meeting of mostly former British colonies, which starts near Brisbane Saturday.

"He is not going in view of the political developments here. Particularly in light of today's developments in Gujarat," Tandon told Reuters.

Earlier Vajpayee appealed to the World Hindu Council (VHP) to shelve its plans to build a new temple on the Ayodhya site.

"This incident is very sad, unfortunate," he said. "I would appeal to the VHP to suspend their campaign and help government in maintaining peace and brotherhood in the country."

Why the mob, which witnesses said numbered several hundred, attacked the train was not immediately clear but one police officer said the activists were shouting pro-Hindu slogans.

Police in some areas of Godhra were ordered to shoot troublemakers on sight and the town of 300,000 was shuttered and the streets largely deserted.

Muslims comprise about 40 percent of Godhra's population compared to a national average of about 12 percent.

In subsequent incidents of violence, Gujarat police said a man was stabbed in Baroda city and another in the town of Anand.

"We don't know the identity of the victims yet but it seems related to the train fire," a police official said.

Six Ahmedabad buses and four shops set on fire as city police sought reinforcements: "The overall situation is under control. All forces have been put on full alert and additional forces are expected to arrive any time," city police commissioner P.C. Pande told Reuters.

GOVERNMENT WARNING

Vajpayee's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) springs from the same Hindu revivalist movement as the VHP but has been forced by coalition allies to drop support for the temple and has called on all sides to allow the courts to solve the issue.

Hard-line Home (interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who was at Ayodhya when the mosque was destroyed but denied accusations of having encouraged it, also warned the VHP that anyone moving ahead to build the temple would face legal action.

"The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has embarked on a course of action in Ayodhya which is fraught with dangerous consequences," he said in a statement. "The developments in Ayodhya can thus precipitate a serious law and order problem."

But the Council rejected the government's pleas, called for a state-wide strike Thursday to protest against the attack and said it would begin building a new temple as planned in March.

"It will be done in a peaceful manner. We will not allow any violence," Council vice president Acharaya Giriraj Kishore said.

Council officials in neighboring Maharashtra state also called for a similar strike there.

Flouting court orders banning any construction until the row is settled, the VHP has initiated a holy ceremony as a prelude to building the temple next month.

Thousands of people from all over India have been visiting Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, to show their support for the building of the temple.

VHP general secretary Pravin Togadia told Reuters Tuesday about 45,000 Hindu devotees had visited Ayodhya since the weekend. A government spokesman put the figure at 14,000.

All activity at the site has been frozen while a state court rules on the dispute. But hard-line Hindus say it is taking too long and last year set a deadline of March for construction.

-- posted by BPyles

Top 120. Feb 27, 2002 4:53 PM

» mitelo - Muslim Murder

A train with Hindu religious pilgrims was set afire by Muslims in India. 57 died including 12 children.
------
It wouldn't surprise me to hear Farrakhan blame this on the CIA.

-- posted by mitelo

Vajpayee firm on Ayodhya

Top 121. Feb 27, 2002 7:44 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Muslim Murder

In response to message posted by mitelo:

Mitelo - you said...

A train with Hindu religious pilgrims was set afire by Muslims in India. 57 died including 12 children.

------

It wouldn't surprise me to hear Farrakhan blame this on the CIA.

No - this attack can't be blamed on the CIA, and terrorist attacks and murder can have no justification. But from what I understand, what's happening in India is an increase in Hindu fundamentalism, a Hindu Revivalist movement that seems to particularly inflame the Islamic fundamentalists....especially when the Hindu fundamentalists or hardliners razed the 16th century Muslim mosque at Ayodhya in 1992, because they said it was built on top of an ancient Hindu religious site. Now the Hindu hardliners are going ahead with building a Hindu temple on top of the ruins of the mosque....even though they've been told by Prime Minister Vajpayee to keep the peace and hold off on any construction till the dispute can be settled in court.

Again - we see a bunch of religious extremists killing each other in the name of God. Have several Indian Hindu & Muslim cyberfriends that have told me that they want nothing to do with Hindu or Muslim extremists....they say that the extremists cause all the problems in India.

This from 2/26 BBCNews prior to the attack:

India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee says his government will not allow any construction on or near the disputed site in the northern town of Ayodhya.

The assurance came at a meeting of leaders from all the main political parties in Delhi on Tuesday.

The meeting was convened by Mr Vajpayee to allay fears that Hindu hardliners would try to alter the present status of the disputed area.

Hundreds of militant Hindu volunteers have gathered in the town where they plan to build a temple on the site of a mosque which was destroyed nine years ago.

Hindu hardliners say the site is the birth place of Lord Rama and they should be allowed to construct a temple dedicated to one of Hinduism's principal deities.

The destruction of the Ayodhya mosque in 1992 sparked nationwide violence in which more than 2,000 people were killed.

Sensitive issue

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, told journalists that the government is aware of the sensitivity of the issue.

He said the prime minister favours a negotiated or a judicial solution of the dispute.

Mr Mahajan said 14,000 Hindu hardliners were present in Ayodhya at present but they were away from the disputed site.

He said the central government has deployed paramilitary troops in the area and if required, more troops would be sent.

Opposition concerns

Opposition leaders said the government should not allow the gathering of Hindu hardliners to grow in Ayodhya.

Some leaders said the government should request the Supreme Court for an early judgement on the dispute.

About 30 representatives of political parties, including the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, attended the meeting.

Earlier in the day, there were angry scenes in both houses of the parliament over the issue.

MPs in the lower house forced an adjournment even after the prime minister said he was ready to debate the issue.

.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 122. Feb 27, 2002 7:59 PM

» mitelo - Re: Muslim Murder

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

I would stop at: "terrorist attacks and murder can have no justification." (pronouncing the little dot there--period.)

57, including 12 children on a train because extremists burned a mosque. My sympathies lie with the dead and their families.

Its funny how Muslims and their apologists find excuses or blatantly lie to deny their crimes. The other side is always the "most evil". Yes, every dispute has more than one side. But, Muslim propaganda, hate, and violence is a threat to me and my family and I intend to oppose it until the truth and peace have been won back.

-- posted by mitelo

Top 123. Feb 27, 2002 8:30 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Pearl Abduction Investigation

A couple articles on Pearl Murder Investigation

from 2/27 Times of India:

Pak rubbishes claims of ISI-Omar Sheikh links

AGENCIES [ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2002 11:54:21 PM ]

ISLAMABAD: With the United States pressing for the extradition of Omar Sheikh, Pakistan on Wednesday angrily denied any ties between the Islamic militants and the country’s intelligence services.

Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider vowed to bring Pearl’s killers to justice, and said allegations about a link between confessed kidnapper Omar Sheikh and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency were "malicious and wrong propaganda." "We reject these reports completely. There is no question of any linkage," Haider said on the sidelines of a conference on people smuggling in Bali, Indonesia.

President Musharraf has pledged to rid his country of Islamic extremism, but there are still concerns about a decades-old alliance between Islamic militants and Pakistani intelligence - forged through years of fighting common enemies in Afghanistan and in Kashmir.

Pakistan police beefed up security at a Karachi jail after an anonymous phone call threatened a rocket attack if Omar Sheikh was extradited, police sources said.

Sources said on Wednesday that the phone call was received late on Tuesday and the caller had threatened an attack on the detention centre if Pakistan’s military-led government bowed to the US demand.

And the massacre of 10 Shiite worshippers, just days after news of the murder of Daniel Pearl, shows how difficult President Pervez Musharraf’s task will be in ridding Pakistan of extremism, analysts said Wednesday. Despite the fall of the hardline Taliban regime in next-door Afghanistan and Musharraf’s January 12 address pledging to modernize the country, extremists did not vanish and still know how to hit Pakistan’s social and political fabric in the most sensitive spots.

Political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said the mosque attack, days after a grisly video surfaced showing Pearl’s killing, showed that Islamic militant groups have re-grouped since Musharraf’s speech.

The outfits "are trying to demonstrate to the government and the international community that they are fine and kicking and would challenge the Musharraf regime for pursuing policies to contain terrorism and extremist elements", Rizvi said.

In the attack Tuesday, suspected Sunni Muslim militants opened fire indiscriminately on Shiite worshippers at a mosque in a poor area of the northern city of Rawalpindi, killing 10 and wounding 15.

and from 2/27 MSNBC.com:

$5 million reward for Pearl killers

MSNBC NEWS SERVICES

The United States on Wednesday offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the apprehension of the killers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted in Pakistan in January.

THE U.S. STATE Department is posting the offer on its Rewards for Justice Web site and will advertise it in Pakistan, spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington during a briefing for reporters.

The United States has asked Pakistan to hand over Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is in custody in Pakistan and who is suspected of organizing Pearl’s kidnapping and murder. Boucher said discussions aimed at satisfying Pakistani legal requirements for his transfer to the United States were continuing.

A high-ranking Pakistani diplomat said earlier Wednesday that his nation had “no objections” to handing Saeed over to U.S. authorities once certain legal issues are resolved.

The diplomat, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan is considering whether to first try Saeed there before handing him over. He said Saeed could be transferred to American custody by classifying him as a combatant fighting against the U.S. war on terrorism, thus allowing the two countries to bypass the issue of extradition. The United States and Pakistan have no clear extradition treaty.

Saeed is among about a dozen suspects in the abduction and murder of the 38-year-old journalist, whose body has not been found. Pakistani authorities say they are still searching for four suspects they believe were key figures in the crime.

MUSHARRAF MEETS WITH WIDOW

Also on Wednesday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met with Pearl’s pregnant wife, Mariane, in Islamabad to console her, state television said.

It quoted Musharraf as telling her that his government would “spare no efforts” to trace her husband’s killers.

Pearl, the India-based South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Pakistan Jan. 23 while trying to contact Islamic radical groups in Karachi. Pakistani and U.S. officials last week received a videotape of his murder.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. broadcast on Tuesday, Mariane Pearl praised Pakistani law enforcement officials, saying they did an “amazing job” with limited resources. She also urged the investigators to continue their search for her husband’s killers.

The United States also has praised Pakistan for its efforts to hunt down the reporter’s abductors, but some media reports have said that Saeed may have been linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider took issue with those reports Wednesday, calling them “malicious and wrong propaganda.”

“We reject these reports completely. There is no question of any linkage,” Haider told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a conference on people smuggling in Bali, Indonesia.

In a meeting Tuesday Musharraf, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlin “thanked the president for the ongoing police cooperation in the Pearl case and encouraged further movement in the case,” said Mark Wentworth, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

WHITE HOUSE WANTS SUSPECT

The White House said it has made clear to Pakistan that it wants to try Saeed.

“The United States would very much like to get our hands on Omar Sheikh and the others who are responsible,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington.

However, Chamberlin and Musharraf agreed it was necessary to keep Saeed in Pakistan for the time being to facilitate efforts to recover Pearl’s body and the weapons used to kill him, a senior Pakistani Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials say they had requested Saeed’s extradition to the United States even before his name came up in connection with Pearl’s murder. The Justice Department secretly indicted him for the 1994 kidnapping of four Westerners in India, including an American.

On Tuesday, Saeed was taken to the city court building in the southern port city of Karachi where a witness in the Pearl case was asked to identify him, said Manzoor Mughal, a senior investigator. During the closed-door proceeding in a judge’s chamber, Saeed was not able to see the witness, whose identify has not been revealed, Mughal said.

Saeed arrived at the court in a convoy of about eight vehicles with dozens of policemen toting AK-47 assault rifles. It was not immediately known if the witness made a positive identification.

GRAND JURY CONSIDERED

Law-enforcement officials in the United States said the Justice Department was considering convening a grand jury in Washington, D.C., or in Alexandria, Va., to hear evidence and possibly bring an indictment.

Bush said he wanted to pursue extradition of Saeed under a 71-year-old treaty signed before the state of Pakistan was created.

“We’re always interested in dealing with people who have harmed American citizens,” he told reporters at the White House.

U.S. officials said they considered the treaty — which was signed with Britain in London in 1931, applied to India in 1942 and then to Pakistan after partition in 1947 — still in effect.

A senior White House official said the treaty had been used as recently as 2001 when, at Pakistan’s request, the United States extradited Mansur-ul-Haq, a former Pakistani naval chief wanted on corruption charges.

Pakistan handed over Ramzi Yousef, the convicted ringleader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Mir Amal Kasi, convicted of a shooting spree outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., without formal extradition proceedings, the official said.

Musharraf may face some pressure to try Saeed in Pakistan to show that the country’s judicial system can function and to fend off nationalist criticism about sending a Pakistani for trial in a foreign country. Many Pakistanis believe Pearl’s murder may have been revenge for Musharraf’s decision to side with the United States in the war in neighboring Afghanistan, reversing Pakistan’s long-standing support for that country’s now ousted Taliban regime.

Musharraf has pledged to rid Pakistan of Islamic extremism, but a decades-old alliance between Islamic militants and Pakistani intelligence agencies could hinder Musharraf’s plan.

HELD FOR 2 MORE WEEKS

A Pakistani judge on Monday gave prosecutors two more weeks to build their case against Saeed and two alleged accomplices implicated in the Pearl murder.

The accused had been expected to face murder and kidnapping charges at the closed hearing, but the judge delayed the charges to give police more time to interrogate the suspects and recover Pearl’s body, said Raja Quereshi, the chief prosecutor. He said police also wanted more time to find the weapons used to kill Pearl.

All three defendants complained that police had forced them to sign blank pieces of paper as part of coerced confessions, said defense attorney Khawaja Naveed. He said the judge, Shabir Ahmed, ordered police to refrain from such action.

The other two men who appeared alongside Saeed are accused of sending e-mails announcing Pearl’s kidnapping.

Saeed stunned a courtroom on Feb. 14 when he confessed to the kidnapping and announced that as far as he knew, Pearl was dead. But court officials say that would not be enough to convict because it was not made under oath.

The main target of a nationwide police manhunt is Amjad Faruqi, who police believe carried out the kidnapping. If police hope to recover Pearl’s body, one investigator said Monday, they must first find Faruqi.

Saeed, 28, a first-generation Briton, was arrested in India in 1994 in connection with the kidnapping of four Western backpackers, but was freed as part of a prisoner-hostage swap after gunmen hijacked an Indian Airlines jet to Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1999.

Before his abduction, Pearl had been investigating alleged links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December for allegedly trying to detonate explosives in his sneakers during a Paris-Miami flight.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Again - IMHO - the Pak ISI will never let Omar Saeed and cohorts be extradited to the U.S. or India, or Britain....they'll manufacture an escape or kill them first.......Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 124. Feb 27, 2002 10:24 PM

» sillyme101 - Re: Re: Gunmen Kill 9 in the mosque

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

Jen, am not trying to ignore you. I am trying to find an impartial source for Sunni/Shia differences

-- posted by sillyme101