India - Pakistan Crisis

Top 76. Feb 12, 2002 8:35 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh - WSJ Reporter Kidnapping

breaking news on the Daniel Pearl Kidnapping....They caught Ahmad Omar Saeed! This from 2/12 MSNBC.com:

<img src="http://a799.ms.akamai.net/3/799/388/91bb..." width=330 height=237 align="right">Police escort three men suspected of involvement in the abduction of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl out of the High Court in Karachi on Tuesday.

American reporter said to be ‘OK’

Top suspect in kidnapping reportedly offers hope on Pearl

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb. 12 — U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl is still alive, according to Pakistani investigators who interrogated the alleged top suspect in his abduction on Tuesday. Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, the subject of a lengthy manhunt, was seized in Lahore and told investigators that the American was still in the port city of Karachi, officials said.

POLICE IN Karachi told NBC News that Saeed’s arrest was a “major breakthrough” and that he disclosed Pearl was still alive during an initial interrogation.

Separately, Jamil Yousuf, head of a citizen-police liaison committee, quoted Saeed as saying of Pearl, “He’s alive. He’s OK.”

Saeed, a British-born Islamic militant, was arrested Tuesday afternoon in the eastern city of Lahore and sent to Karachi for questioning, ministry secretary Tasneem Noorani told The Associated Press.

Saeed, now 27, was freed from an Indian jail in December 1999 in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines jet that was hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

His arrest was announced one day before Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is to meet President George W. Bush in Washington. The kidnapping embarrassed the Musharraf government, which is seeking U.S. aid as it attempts to combat Muslim extremism in this predominantly Islamic country of 147 million people.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have warmed up significantly since the Islamabad government agreed to support the U.S. war on terrorism in Afghanistan, where Pakistan had been a staunch supporter of the hard-line Taliban regime.

RELEASED AFTER HIJACKING

Saeed, a 27-year-old British born Islamic militant, was freed from an Indian jail in December 1999 in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines jet which was hijacked on a domestic flight to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The son of a clothes merchant from Wanstead in east London, Saeed studied at the London School of Economics.

Lonnie Kelley, spokesman for the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, said they had no word on Pearl’s fate and were trying to confirm that Saeed has been arrested.

“We are looking into it, but nothing on Daniel yet,” he said.

A team of police officers from the southern province of Sindh had been in Lahore searching for Saeed for the last few days, the government-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported Tuesday.

Police identified Saeed as the prime suspect in the case after arresting three men suspected of sending e-mails that announced Pearl’s kidnapping.

One of the three men who was found to have the e-mails on his laptop computer told investigators that he got them from Saeed, police said. The other two said they had met Saeed in Afghanistan, police said.

MORE ARRESTS

Several more arrests were reported in Karachi, Rawalpindi and other major cities Tuesday.

Yousuf of the citizens’ liaison committee said the key break in Saeed’s arrest came Monday night with the arrest of a suspect in the capital of Islamabad who gave key information. Yousuf did not elaborate.

The three suspects accused of sending the e-mails announcing Pearl’s abduction were charged with kidnapping Tuesday and ordered jailed for two more weeks.

On Tuesday, those suspects were brought to Sindh province’s High Court in an armored personnel carrier surrounded by 20 machine-gun toting policemen wearing helmets and bulletproof vests.

The suspects were chained together at the waist, their heads and faces covered by shawls and bath towels. They were led into a second-story courtroom but presiding Judge Shabir Ahmed decided to hear their case in his chambers.

The trio had been due in court Monday but proceedings were delayed after officials decided that an anti-terrorism judge, not a civil one, should hear the case.

Defense attorney Khawaja Naveed complained that he hadn’t been allowed to speak to his client, Farhad Naseem, the man on whose laptop police say they found the evidence. “Look at them in this shape,” he said, gesturing toward the men squatting on the courthouse floor. “I don’t even know what defense to give. I have not been allowed to even talk to them.”

The two other detained suspects were Sheikh Mohammed Adeel, a constable with the police department’s special branch, and Salman Saqib.

Both are members of the Islamic militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which police believe may be connected with Pearl’s kidnapping, and both have fought “holy wars” in Afghanistan, a police official said.

After the hearing, the suspects were taken back to jail in an armored personnel carrier that was part of a six-vehicle convoy that included jeeps mounted with machine guns.

MEETING WITH EXTREMISTS

Pearl, the Journal’s South Asian bureau chief, was abducted on his way to a Karachi meeting with Islamic extremists. He hoped they would provide information about e-mails exchanged by Pakistani militants and Briton Richard C. Reid, the so-called shoe bomber arrested on a Paris-to-Miami flight in December with explosives in his sneakers.

Four days later, an e-mail sent to Pakistani and international media showed photos of Pearl in captivity and demanded that the United States repatriate Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan and now detained at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A second e-mail sent Jan. 30 said the 38-year-old reporter would be killed in 24 hours. That was the last known message from his captors.

NBC’s Carol Grisanti in Karachi, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Read another report that there was evidence that Omar Saeed was incognito posing as the person setting up the meetings for Dan Pearl with the extremists....and instead of meeting with extremists he was taken hostage. Glad he's caught - hope that Dan Pearl is released soon!.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 77. Feb 12, 2002 9:59 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh - WSJ Reporter Kidnapping

In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:

Steven - you wrote above about Omar Saeed's connection to the Calcutta terrorist attack:

Lal Krishna Advani, India's Home Minister, linked Mr Sheikh's group on January 23, 2002 to the Calcutta drive-by shooting on Tuesday January 22, 2002. He said that a caller from Dubai had telephoned police in Calcutta to claim responsibility for the attack. Information so far "indicates that a group which kidnapped a Calcutta businessman some time back and was able to extract ransom from him" was behind the shooting, the minister said. The ransom he was referring to was paid last August 2001 to the man who called the police in Calcutta on Tuesday January 22, 2002, and according to Indian investigators a large portion of that money, $100,000 (£70,000), went on to Mr Sheikh.

a little more detail @ 2/10 Boston Herald:

In New Delhi, Indian authorities said Saeed was also linked to an alleged crime boss who was extradited yesterday from Dubai in connection with a deadly shooting attack on an American government cultural center in Calcutta on Jan. 22. India's Central Bureau of Investigation said Saeed had helped Aftab Ansari, also known as Farhan Malik, flee to Dubai after jumping bail in India.

Hmmm - wonder if this Aftab Ansari aka Farhan Malik is the other person arrested that helped them catch Saeed? Wonder what evil hostage taking scheme some extremist group will devise now to deal for Saeed's release like they did before? IMHO - Best they just execute him ASAP, and don't give 'em a chance to devise a scheme!! I don't care if in previous life as a British citizen he was "intelligent" "friendly" "a good bloke" as described in British media. He made his choice to go over to the dark side....he's been instrumental in the deaths of so many innocent people......justice should be swift & sure this time........Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 78. Feb 12, 2002 8:08 PM

» Steven_Russell - Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

Wow, thanks Jen, that's two really bad guys off the streets in one week. Take a look at this guy's resume:

Farhan Malik --------------------------- India PRISONER extradited from Dubai 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, heads a group India suspects of carrying out the shooting of police that killed five and wounded 20 outside the American Center in Calcutta.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

Top 79. Feb 12, 2002 8:38 PM

» Steven_Russell - Re: Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik & Abdul Majeed

In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:

We want to get this guy too:

Abdul Majeed -------------------- at large in India; hosted at his rented house in Hazaribagh, India two gunmen killed in a shootout there January 28, 2002, from the January 22, 2002 mass murder shooting in Calcutta
a Laskhar-e-Toiba sympathiser. Indian police said two men were killed in a gun battle in the northern state of Jharkhand on Monday January 28, 2001, but that one of them had confessed to the Calcutta attack shortly before he died.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

Ansari gives CBI leads on kidnapping

Top 80. Feb 12, 2002 11:06 PM

» JenL_6 - Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik

In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:

Hmmm - I was wondering aloud above if the arrest & extradition of Farhan Malik aka Aftab Ansari from Dubai might have lead to the arrest of Omar Saeed Sheikh.....Maybe so!....this from 2/13 Times of India:

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: The arrest of Aftab Ansari has yielded "major clues" about the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl, say Indian intelligence agencies.

A source in the Intelligence Bureau said they had "specific information" about the movement of Ansari in Pakistan and even the FBI had its own intelligence inputs about his association with the terrorist groups who are suspected to be involved in Pearl's kidnapping.

Ansari's arrest is crucial because he was a computer-savvy criminal and had a knack of collecting all kinds of data. "He was constantly in touch on e-mail with various terrorists and has got a lot of information about the activities of groups operating from Pakistan and other countries. He also knows about several "links" who help these groups in India," the source said.

The IB, however, is not convinced about Ansari's Al-Qaida links. "The FBI is trying to collect all the data from Ansari about his Al-Qaida links. But it seems that his knowledge about the Al-Qaida is based on what he had heard from other criminals", an official said.

Though investigation suggests a part of the ransom Ansari collected was given to Omar Sheikh and forwarded to Mohammad Atta - the main accused in the WTC attack on 9/11 - IB sources say that it seems he had given this money to Sheikh as a "protection and cooperation fee" and that he hardly had any information where this money was being sent.

more from NDTV.com (New Delhi TV?):

<img src="http://a1763.g.akamai.net/7/1763/6320/11..." width=160 height=160 align="left">Farhan Malik arrested in Dubai, brought to Delhi

Saturday, February 9, 2002 (New Delhi):

Dubai-based criminal Farhan Malik alias Aftab Ahmed Ansari, the alleged mastermind behind the attack on the American Centre in Kolkata has been arrested in Dubai and brought to New Delhi. Malik was brought to India by a CBI team after being arrested and deported by the authorities in Dubai.

The CBI team, which flew in another suspect Rajinder from Dubai, landed in New Delhi around 5 pm (IST). Rajinder is wanted by the Gujarat police in connection with an arms racket.

Farhan Malik, who had claimed responsibility for the attack, was running a restaurant in Dubai and had a Pakistani passport under a false name.

India and the UAE have had an extradition treaty for the last two years but Farhan Malik is the first criminal to be handed over to the Indian authorities.

Interpol had issued a Red Corner notice against Dubai-based underworld don Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik.

The Red Corner notice "A-1476/12/2001" against Malik was issued by the Lyyons Office of the Interpol on January 25 after the CBI provided some evidence including telephone number of Malik, from which he had called the Superintendent of Police in Kolkata after the shootout.

The CBI, which is the representative of Interpol in India, issued the Red Corner notice against Malik following a request from West Bengal police in the kidnapping of Kolkata's shoe baron Parthapratim Roy Burman and Kolkatta shoot out case.

Malik was contacted by Pakistan's ISI in early 2000 for supporting covert operations in India and introduced to Omar Sheikh, a HuJI leader. He extracted a ransom of Rs 3.75 crore, which was transferred to Dubai through hawala channel, by kidnapping Burman.

Out of this ransom, Omar Sheikh, one of the three militants released by India in December 1999 for the safety of hostages on board the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar, had sent $100,000 through telegraphic transfer to Mohd Atta, leader of hijackers who rammed planes into WTC in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on September 11.

The CBI had also shared information with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) about Ansari.

Who is Farhan Malik

Wednesday, January 23, 2002 (New Delhi):

The Kolkata shootout has uncovered a new transnational criminal. Farhan Malik, also known as Aftab Ahmed Ansari is seen by crime officials as the man who wants to take the place of Dawood Ibrahim.

Malik is the latest on India's most wanted list and is believed to be responsible for the Kolkata shootout. His crime dossier is typical of the new trend in the underworld.

Born in Varanasi, Malik got his Indian passport number B 1035750 on November 8, 1999 from the Regional Passport Office, Patna. Originally part of the UP-based Dinesh Thakur gang, he was arrested by the Ashok Vihar Police Station in Delhi under the Arms Act on July 31, 1995.

While in Tihar Jail in Delhi, Malik met Asif Raza Khan, who was working with the Hizbul Mujahideen and was arrested by the Delhi Police in June 1994. He also met Omar Sheikh, arrested for abducting foreign nationals in November 1994. Sheikh, after being released in the IC-814 hijack case, helped finance the World Trade Centre attacks.

After Malik was released on bail in 1996, he escaped to Dubai. There, he managed a Pakistani passport -- 0872442 with the help of the ISI under a fake name of Safeer Mohammed Rana and started running a restaurant.

It is from Dubai that Malik now runs his gang with financial help from the Rawalpindi-based Omar Sheikh and local gangsters like Raza in Kolkata, Aquib Ali Khan in Bhopal and Shaukat in Gurgaon, Haryana.

The gang has safe houses in Delhi, Mumbai, Agra and Bhopal while their countrywide network spreads across Jaipur, Ajmer, Malegaon, Ludhiana, Ambala, Nasik and Varanasi.

The gang's main activity is kidnapping for ransom. It has targeted businessmen in Kolkata, Varanasi, Agra and Rajkot. They have also been involved in gunrunning linking up with terrorist groups like the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami.

Ironically, the gunrunning has exposed the gang's network. First in October last year when a huge consignment of arms and explosives, including AK-47s and RDX were caught in Gujarat's Santhalpur and then in a similar raid in Patan district last month.

Now with the Kolkata shootout, their ties with the Al-Qaida have also been bared. Malik's relationship with Omar Sheikh changed the rules of the game. In the 1993 Mumbai blasts for example, Dawood Ibrahim was used by jehadis. This time it is organised crime which has reached out to the jehadis -- a link that holds the key to the Kolkata shootout and confirms the new terrorist dimension in the country.

......Jen

-- posted by JenL_6

Pearl kidnap suspect interrogated

Top 81. Feb 13, 2002 1:56 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik

Update on Pearl Kidnapping from 12/14 CNN.com with pic from PakistanDaily http://www.pakistandaily.com/

Just as expected - Saeed's not talking.....Grrr!!

<img src="http://photo.worldnews.com/PhotoArchive/..." width=200 height=205 align="left">Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh

Pakistani president 'reasonably sure' missing journalist is alive

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani police Wednesday were involved in an intense and ongoing interrogation of the man believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Karachi's police chief said

According to Tariq Jamil, police believe Pearl is alive because they have no other information that indicates they should believe otherwise.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born Islamic militant believed to be behind the abduction, assured police after his arrest Tuesday that Pearl was alive and in Karachi, raising hopes for an imminent end to the abduction.

A senior Karachi police officer Tuesday night called Saeed Sheikh "a hard nut to crack."

In Washington, Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday he's "reasonably sure" Pearl is still alive and said authorities were "as close as possible" to getting him released. Musharraf said the kidnapping appeared to be fallout from his crackdown on Islamic militants.

"We are not deterred. These kinds of things were expected," Musharraf said after meeting with U.S. President Bush.

Bush said he and Musharraf share a "mutual desire that Mr. Pearl return home safely."

'This could take a while'

But other U.S. officials sounded a more cautious note Wednesday.

"(Ahmed Omar Saeed) Sheikh probably wasn't the 'level one' person," said one official close to the investigation. "People thought -- arrest the Sheikh and there's Danny. But it could take a few more days to 'shake' him out ...to reach the next step," the official said.

Another senior State Department official said the United States is reluctant to speculate as to how much longer it could be before Pearl is freed.

Officials continue to voice optimism that Pearl is alive, but say they've based their assessment on statements made by Saeed Sheikh after he was captured Tuesday.

"This could go on for a while," said Stephen Goldstein, a spokesman for the Wall Street Journal.

Goldstein said the newspaper has ruled out the possibility of a "massive raid" to rescue Pearl if that were to put the 38-year-old American journalist at risk.

Police arrested the 28-year-old Saeed Sheikh in the northeastern Pakistani city of Lahore, where he was found in a house with his wife and child. Police said Saeed Sheikh surrendered without a struggle. Later in the day, he was brought to Karachi.

Aid concessions

Musharraf brought along a delegation of Pakistani officials to discuss the next steps in the war on terrorism, as well as Pakistan's hope that the United States may forgive billions of dollars in past loans.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Pakistani officials have "been very helpful" in the hunt for Pearl and his kidnappers, and a U.S. official told CNN, "We have confidence in the way the Pakistanis are handling this."

Saeed Sheikh was arrested for the 1994 kidnapping in India of three Britons and an American tourist and was released five years later in exchange for the freedom of 155 passengers aboard a hijacked India Air flight.

He grew up in London suburbs and attended elite private schools in the British capital. He attended the London School of Economics before becoming an Islamic jihadist in 1993.

Saeed Sheikh had eluded law enforcement since he was identified as a suspect in the Pearl kidnapping earlier this month. Punjab police detained him after a lengthy search of Lahore, about 654 miles (1053 km) northeast of Karachi.

Investigators obtained the information that led to Saeed Sheikh from a series of arrests in Islamabad and Karachi Monday night.

Test of new law

Tuesday, three suspects accused of aiding and abetting in Pearl's kidnapping were remanded to police custody and are scheduled to be back in Pakistan's anti-terrorism court in 14 days to face formal charges.

In the first case to be tried under a new amendment to Pakistan's antiterrorism law, Fahd Naseem, "Salman" and "Adil" were formally arrested in connection with Pearl's kidnapping.

They were brought into the court with towels over their heads, surrounded by police officers and told not to talk to anyone about their case. A lawyer for one of the men told CNN that he still has not had a chance to talk to his client.

The three men were detained when investigators discovered a connection between them and a computer that had been used to send notes demanding the release of Pakistani prisoners being held at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

One of the men allegedly told investigators that Saeed Sheikh had given him the text of the messages and photographs of Pearl in captivity to transmit.

Pearl, 38, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, disappeared while supposedly on his way to interview another Pakistani militant believed to have connections with Richard Reid, the man accused of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.

In New York, the newspaper's managing editor, Paul Steiger, who has repeatedly appealed to Pearl's kidnappers to release him, told CNN he is waiting for further word from Pakistan.

"Let's hope we have some good news," he said. "It's a slow process."

Last week, CNN obtained copies of e-mails purportedly sent to Pearl by Saeed Sheikh, using the pseudonym Chaudery Bashir Ahmad Shabbir, or simply Bashir. The e-mails indicate that Pearl was lured into a trap with promises of an interview with Sheikh Mubarik ali Gilani, the head of the fundamentalist Islamic Jamaat ul-Fuqra group.

Police had briefly detained Gilani, but later said they did not believe he had a hand in the kidnapping.

-- CNN's Ben Wedeman and Hugh Williams contributed to this report

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 82. Feb 14, 2002 9:14 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik

More on the Daniel Pearl Kidnapping some disturbing conflicting accounts from 2/14 MSNBC.com:

Kidnap suspect says Pearl is dead

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb. 14 — The key suspect in the abduction of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl told a court Thursday that the journalist is dead. Officials said they would reserve judgment until a body was found, and the newspaper said it remained confident Pearl was alive.

“AS FAR AS I understand, he’s dead,” Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh said in a courthouse in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, where Pearl disappeared on Jan. 23 while investigating a story on Islamic militants.

Saeed appeared in the Karachi court where he was formally charged with kidnapping and ordered jailed for two more weeks.

‘I DID THIS’

A sullen, bespectacled Saeed, surrounded by police with machine guns, helmets and bulletproof vests, confessed to the crime.

“I don’t want to defend this case. I did this,” he said.

He gave no details on where or when the 38-year-old journalist was allegedly killed.

Police said Saeed surrendered to authorities on Tuesday, but Saeed told the court he had been in police custody since Feb. 5. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.

“I was not arrested. I gave myself in on Feb. 5. I gave myself in after it became known that I was involved to save my family from harassment,” Saeed told the court in a soft voice, barely audible at times. The 27-year-old British-born Islamic militant has a history of kidnapping Westerners.

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider cast doubt on Saeed’s statement. “Until the body is found we cannot believe what Omar is saying,” Haider told The Associated Press by telephone. “We need proof or evidence. We will continue to work on him, grind him, ask him, ‘Where was Pearl kept? Where is his body?’ Omar himself admitted he masterminded and planned this crime.”

‘WE REMAIN CONFIDENT’

Steven Goldstein, spokesman for Dow Jones & Co., The Wall Street Journal’s parent organization, said he had not heard about Saeed’s statement. “We continue to remain hopeful,” Goldstein said. “We remain confident that Danny is still alive.”

Goldstein said no representatives from the Wall Street Journal were present at the court proceedings.

Pearl’s wife, Mariane, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, also did not attend but in a statement Thursday again appealed for his release.

“Our child is a living soul,” she said. “Since his father’s disappearance, he is now breathing into his being the worry and apprehension I have about my husband’s well being. My husband and I are looking forward to creating a family that will help make this world a better place through better dialogue and understanding between civilizations.”

Saeed, who was brought to the courtroom in an armored personnel carrier under heavy security, said he carried out the kidnapping under “my own free will.”

“Right or wrong I had my reasons,” he told the judge in a quiet voice. “I think that our country shouldn’t be catering to America’s needs.”

Pakistan has been a key supporter of the U.S. war against terrorism in Afghanistan, allowing U.S. forces to use Pakistani air bases. Saeed’s court appearance comes a day after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met with President Bush at the White House.

Saeed entered the courtroom with his head covered by a shawl but removed it on his own despite objections from police.

He didn’t provide details of his treatment at the hands of police except to say they had been “better than others.”

Saeed was arrested in India in 1994 for kidnapping Western backpackers in Kashmir. The kidnappers demanded the release of Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in the contested Himalayan region. Saeed was shot and wounded by police and the hostages were freed unharmed.

He spent the next five years in jail, but was never tried. He was freed in December 1999 after gunmen hijacked an Indian Airlines jet to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and demanded the release of Saeed and two other militants.

Saeed’s surrender was considered the biggest break in the case so far.

Police hoped it would help them quickly find Pearl, who disappeared on his way to meet with Islamic extremist contacts. He was believed to be investigating links between Pakistani militants and Richard Reid, accused of trying to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on a Paris-to-Miami flight in December.

‘UNEXPLAINABLE’

Jamil Yousuf, head of a citizens-police liaison committee involved in the investigation, said that Saeed asked the kidnappers on Feb. 5 to release Pearl. Since then, Yousuf claimed, Saeed said he has not been in touch with Pearl’s captors.

Yousuf said Wednesday that Saeed told police threats to kill Pearl were not carried out. “He’s alive. He’s OK,” Yousuf had quoted Saeed as saying.

Yousuf called Saeed’s statement in court “unexplainable.”

“He is such a shrewd person,” Yousuf said. “It’s difficult to understand him.”

Yousuf added that at least eight to 10 more suspects were detained for questioning overnight.

Four days after Pearl disappeared, an e-mail sent to Pakistani and international media showed photos of him in captivity and demanded that the United States repatriate Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan and now detained at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A second e-mail sent Jan. 30 said Pearl would be killed in 24 hours. That was the last known message from his captors.

Three men accused of sending the e-mails — police constable Sheikh Mohammed Adeel, Fahad Naseem and Salman Saqib — were formally charged with kidnapping Tuesday and ordered held for two more weeks.

Pearl’s kidnapping has hampered Musharraf’s efforts to dispel Pakistan’s image as a center of Islamic extremism. Musharraf said he was expecting some “fallout” from his government’s recent promise to root out religious extremism and shut down militant Islamic groups.

Hate to say it.....but I'm wondering if the Pearl kidnapping was Pak ISI instigated. There was a comment in the India media that the head of the Pak ISI had ties to Omar Saeed.....but I took that as possible anti-Pak propaganda... so didn't post it. But the conflicting accounts coming out now sure look suspicious!!! Hope Daniel Pearl is still alive. Hope Omar Saeed stays behind bars and both India and U.S. officials get to interrogate him.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 83. Feb 14, 2002 6:17 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik

More on Dan Pearl kidnapping in 1/15 AsiaTimes. Unfortunately there's no new info on the whereabouts of Pearl - but it tells about all twists & turns this case has taken:

Pearl kidnap catch could turn to ashes

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - News of the arrest of the chief suspect in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case will have boosted the image of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf in the eyes of his Washington host, President George W Bush. But the view that Musharraf has a tight grip on affairs in his country may prove an illusion in this case.

The suspect, British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (commonly known as Sheikh Omar), appeared in court on Thursday morning, and his statements there indicate that he is nothing more than a foot soldier in the bizarre case of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist who was abducted over a fortnight ago.

Omar told the anti-terrorism court in Karachi that, "As far as I understand, he [Pearl] is dead." He also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping: "Yes, I kidnapped him," he said in response to a question from the judge.

Omar's statement was yet another sudden shift in the development of the case which, it appears, is going to grow still more puzzling in coming days.

On Wednesday, the inspector general of police for Sindh province, Syed Kamal Shah, termed Omar a "hard nut to crack" and said Omar was not prepared to say anything. According to sources, soon after his arrest Omar had told an interrogation team that several groups were involved in the kidnapping, and that he did not know where Pearl was, or whether he was still alive.

Omar's statements to the investigation team and to the court are a complete contradiction of his statement, cited by Deputy Inspector General of Police Tariq Jami, that Pearl was still alive.

Credit for Omar's arrest does not go to the Pakistani police, despite what the police say. Omar gave himself up. Before he did so, he telephoned various intelligence officers and police officials to say that he was not involved in the kidnapping, and he asked them to stop bothering his relatives. When police continued to harass and detain relatives, Omar finally sent a message saying he was in Sheikupura but would come to Lahore and inform the police of his whereabouts. He did so, and was arrested.

Immediately after the arrest on Tuesday, Omar was transported from Lahore to Karachi and handed over to a senior joint interrogation team comprising officials from the intelligence department of the police, Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, and Military Intelligence.

Sources say that until Wednesday morning, Omar did not mention the whereabouts of Daniel Pearl and insisted that he was not involved in the case. However, Omar gave the names of his contacts in Karachi; the subsequent police raid unearthed no clue about Pearl's whereabouts.

As Asia Times Online has pointed out previously, the Pearl case is odd in that the investigation always changes course in midstream, deviating toward areas that are not directly related to the case. For instance, initially it was said that Pearl had been in touch with the Harkatul Mujahadeen group, but suddenly investigations shifted to Jamiatul Fuqarah. Mubarak Ali Jilani, the chief of Jamiatul Fuqarah, appeared before police officials and was arrested. Interrogation revealed that he had no link with the Pearl kidnapping, and the police chief proclaimed him innocent. However, he is still being interrogated by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency over his links in the US and India.

Many details have unfolded about Jilani's followers in Florida, mostly African-American Muslims who finance his organization with large, regular donations.

After Jilani, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official, Khalid Khawaja was interrogated, released, and again arrested. Khawaja retired in the late 1980s and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden. When he was picked up during the Pearl investigations, he proudly admitted that he had been a close friend of bin Laden but had nothing to do with the kidnapping. All investigating agencies, including those of the US, gave him a clean bill of health as far as the Pearl case was concerned. However, a few days ago he was arrested again for investigation into his links with bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Aslam Khan Shirani is another example of the strange fish being netted in the Pearl investigation. Contrary to a US newspaper's claim, Shirani has never been an ISI offiical. He is a private citizen who was involved in the Afghan war during the Soviet occupation. He was on the ISI's payroll to recruit and train volunteers for the Afghan jihad, and operated a training camp near Peshawer University until 1991. After the then director general of ISI, Lt Gen Hamid Gul, was removed, the camp was closed. From the mid-'90s, apparently, Shirani was not active in jihad activity. But his arrest is likely to open a new Pandora's box, and many high-profile names are likely to be affected by his investigation, according to a source.

Judging by the pattern of investigations into the Pearl case so far, even if Pearl's fate remains a mystery, investigations will continue for a long time - until several networks of militant groups are exposed and broken.

.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Suspected hijack bankroller freed by India in '99

Top 84. Feb 15, 2002 7:45 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Saeed Sheikh & Farhan Malik

Some background on Saeed Sheik. I think this this article from 10/6 CNN.com was posted earlier here, and Steven is tracking the info - but the media recently has been concentrating on Saeed's kidnapping offences and overlooking some of his other deep al-Qaida entanglements:

A man suspected of playing a key role in bankrolling the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States was released from prison in India less than two years ago after hijackers of an Indian Airlines flight demanded his freedom, a senior-level U.S. government source told CNN.

This source said U.S. investigators now believe Sheik Syed, using the alias Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad, sent more than $100,000 from Pakistan to Mohammed Atta, the suspected hijacking ringleader who piloted one of the jetliners into the World Trade Center.

Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead.

In addition, sources have said Atta sent thousands of dollars -- believed to be excess funds from the operation -- back to Syed in the United Arab Emirates in the days before September 11.

Syed also is described as a key figure in the funding operation of al Qaeda, the network headed by suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

But Syed would still be in prison were it not for the December 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 -- an ordeal strikingly similar to the four hijackings carried out on September 11.

The plane, with 178 passengers on board, was en route from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi, India, when terrorists used knives to take control of the aircraft, slitting the throat of one passenger to force the pilots to open the cockpit door.

For eight days, the passengers and crew were held hostage in a terrifying journey that finally ended up in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when the Indian government agreed to release three Islamic militants held in Indian prisons.

One of those men was Syed, widely recognized as the leader of an al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic militant group known as Harkat-ul-Muhahedin, which is fighting for independence for Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan.

Because investigators have now determined that Syed and Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad are the same person, it provides another key link to bin Laden as the mastermind of the overall plot. Investigators have said at least three of the 19 suspected hijackers were tied to al Qaeda.

Syed was educated at the London School of Economics and has experience in international money transfers. Indian intelligence officials said the last time they spotted him was six months ago at a bookstore in Islamabad, Pakistan.

"He is also linked to the financial network feeding bin Laden's assets, so therefore he's quite an important person," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert. "He's quite an influential person because he transfers money between various operatives, and he's a node between al Qaeda and foot soldiers on the ground."

-- CNN Correspondents Kelli Arena and Mike Boettcher contributed to this report.

and the Jan 02 issue of Harpers has published the....

Diary of a Terrorist

From the thirty-five-page handwritten prison diary of Ahmad Omar Sayed Sheikh, the main suspect in the abduction of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. In 1992, while studying at the London School of Economics, Sheikh, a British Muslim from an affluent London family, became interested in the plight of Bosnia's Muslims. He traveled to Croatia in 1993 and was unable to enter Bosnia but made contacts with mujahedeen fighters who advised that he go to Afghanistan for training. After spending several months in Afghan training camps, Sheikh joined Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, a terrorist group operating in Kashmir, and was sent to India on a mission to kidnap Westerners who could be used in a prisoner exchange. Sheikh was captured by Indian police in 1994 and was himself exchanged in 1999 for the passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines jet. The document was obtained and published in October by the Times of London......

...read on....chilling!.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2