M A I N   N E W S

Kidnapping: key link identified

Karachi, February 4
The Pakistan police believe that a missing Muslim militant, Mohammad Hashim Qadeer, is a crucial link in the abduction of US journalist Daniel Pearl, as the search for the missing reporter intensified today.

They believed that Pearl, 38, living somewhere in Karachi where he disappeared 12 days ago, although the investigation was nationwide.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was using Qadeer, better known as Arif, as a contact point to meet other Islamic militants in Pakistan, a senior officer involved in the investigation said.

The police has dismissed claims by Arif’s family that he died recently in Afghanistan.

When Pearl was last seen in Karachi 12 days ago he was going to meet Arif who was to take him to Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, leader of the little-known militant Muslim group Tanzeem-ul-Fuqra, the officer said on the condition of anonymity.

“Investigations have shown Arif was acting as a go-between for Pearl and Gilani,” he said.

Gilani was detained at Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, last Wednesday, and remains in custody although he denies any connection with the kidnapping.

The officer said it appeared that Gilani was “used as a bait to trap the American journalist. Unwittingly he (Pearl) played into the hands of the kidnappers.”

He said the police continued to believe Pearl was still alive as the kidnappers’ demands had not been met, and nothing has been heard from them since they extended the death-threat deadline last Thursday.

“It seems that he is being held somewhere in Karachi,” the officer said.

“The investigation is now focussed on one key link (Arif). We believe he is still alive despite claims by his family that he had died in Afghanistan.”

When a police party visited Arif’s home in southern Bahawalpur district last week they found the family conducting prayers for the dead but there was no sign of a body.

“We have no confirmation that he has been killed,” the Assistant Police Superintendent in Bahawalpur, Mr Khurran Shakoor, said. AFP

Advani’s hand in plot: Pak ‘has proof’

Islamabad, February 4
Despite India rubbishing Pakistani allegations of Home Minister L.K. Advani’s alleged involvement in a criminal conspiracy to eliminate Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1947 in Karachi, Islamabad appears keen to keep the issue alive with its Interior Secretary quoted in the media as having said the government had obtained records in this connection.

Interior Secretary Tasnim Noorani was quoted by local daily ‘The Nation’ as saying that the government had obtained records of the criminal case lodged against Advani for hatching a conspiracy to kill Jinnah in Karachi.

He said the information would be made public after collecting some other details.

Meanwhile, he said in the case of abduction of American journalist Daniel Pearl, government had acquired some proof to point out Indian involvement in it but did not give details.

Late last month, in a tit-for-tat reaction to the list of 20 criminals that New Delhi wants Islamabad to extradite to India, the Pakistan Foreign Office announced that Islamabad was preparing its own list of persons it wanted extradited from India. Prominent on this list, it appeared, was Mr Advani wanted in a case registered in a Karachi police station in September 1947. PTI

Taliban fighters ‘may foment’ trouble in J&K

New Delhi, February 4
A new militant outfit, comprising “thousands” of Pakistani Taliban fighters airlifted by Islamabad following the siege of the Afghan town of Kunduz two months ago, “might step up violence in Jammu and Kashmir in the coming weeks and months”, a media report said.

The outfit, called ‘Shoora-e-Furqan’ or Assembly of Believers, “would be based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir” and is likely to step up violent activities “to prove that jehad in Kashmir is not dead”, a web news agency Indo-Asian News Service, said quoting sources “who claim to be privy to information inside Afghanistan and Pakistan”.

While about 5,000 Taliban and Al- Qaida fighters were reportedly airlifted from Kunduz by Pakistan in November-December last year, it quoted sources as saying the number was “much higher”.

According to “a source in Kabul close to assassinated Northern Alliance Commander Ahmed Shah Masood”, there were between 25,000 to 30,000 Taliban, Pakistani and Al- Qaida fighters at Kunduz at that time.

“While about 6,000 of them surrendered, Pakistani military aircraft evacuated the others”, the source told the news agency, adding that it was a “day and night operation which continued for several days” and could not have taken place without the knowledge of US forces.

“It is not only top Taliban leaders who have disappeared, hundreds of missiles, tanks and artillery guns which the Taliban had in its armoury have also disappeared without a trace,” the report said. PTI

Sattar for mediation

Munich, February 4
Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said in an interview published today that international intervention was essential to ending his country’s conflict with India.

“We do not want war, neither conventional nor nuclear, because it could end in catastrophe,” Mr Sattar was quoted as saying in German-language Sueddeutsche Zeitung paper.

“The key to a solution rests in the participation of third parties. We hope the international community will use its influence to bring about a solution,” Mr Sattar said.

“The work of diplomats is even more important during times of crisis. The role of friends suddenly becomes very significant. I am happy that a number of countries are currently involved ... But it is difficult at the moment because India does not want dialogue.

“We do not really know why they are not ready,” he said.

Mr Sattar said Pakistan was “ready to meet at any time, in any place, at any level.

“If India is hesitant about conducting a public dialogue, the discussions can be held privately. Other countries can also play a role in inviting India and Pakistan to take part in discussions,” Mr Sattar said. AFP

No US mediation on Kashmir: Blackwill

Thiruvananthapuram, February 4
The USA would have an ‘intense’ and ‘sustained’ interest in South Asia, but it had no intention of mediating on the Kashmir issue, US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill said here today.

“We are not going home,” Mr Blackwill told a meet-the-press programme here, indicating his country’s intention to take a greater and sustained interest in the region, different from the ‘episodic interest’ it had in the past.

Holding that India had benefitted from the US policies vis-a-vis the fight against terrorism since September 11, Mr Blackwill said the USA was closely watching the implementation of promises made by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in last month’s speech, including India’s demand for extraditing terrorists.

On the Kashmir issue, Mr Blackwill said “the US position on Kashmir is very simple. We are not going to mediate on the issue. We want Pakistan and India to talk about it.” PTI