February 4, 2002	Monday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1422

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KARACHI, Feb 3: A 16-year-old boy, resident of Lahore, who had allegedly sent an e-mail claiming that the missing US journalist, Daniel Pearl, is alive, was escorted to Karachi on Sunday morning for interrogation.

Confirming the shifting of the suspect from Lahore to Karachi, the DIG Karachi (Operation), Tariq Jamil, said: “The youth is in our custody and our investigators are interrogating the suspect. However, still we have not made any headway in the case.”

The police sources, who had not disclosed the identity of the youth, said the Lahore police traced him and picked him up on Saturday. He was handed over to Karachi police subsequently for investigation. They said computer accessories were also seized and after their examination it had been established that three electronic messages were sent to the media through this computer. The sources declined to state the contents of all the e-mails.

Another source in the police while disclosing the contents of the e-mail said an e-mail claiming the death of Daniel was sent through the same computer and later another e-mail was sent to the media that Daniel was alive. Although both the e-mails appeared to be fake, the police were taking them up seriously, he maintained.

The sources said the investigators were of the view that the youth was not operating alone and that he did not know the intensity of the crime. However, he was being used by three or four persons. The police were making efforts to know those who were using him as a tool. After the youth named those persons, the arrest of more suspects in Lahore was expected, the sources added.

Talking to Dawn, Tariq Jamil said: “Earlier, we have picked up two teenaged boys in the city as we suspected they had sent an e-mail. We also took their laptop computer and its accessories, scanned its hard disk and reached a conclusion that they were not involved in sending e-mail as there was no substantial record was present in the computer which could indicate their involvement.”

He said it was a time-consuming and lengthy procedure to trace the path and the location of an e-mail. If it was sent from an Internet cafe, it became more difficult to find out the person involved. “We are concentrating on tracking down the e-mails that were sent to media from Karachi,” he added.

He also confirmed that the man, who had been suspected of making a phone call to the US embassy in Islamabad, had been picked up. The Islamabad police interrogated him and due to lack of concrete evidence, he was let off subsequently, he added.

The sources said Daniel Pearl had met Arif in Karachi, who had referred him to one Bashir. The police had raided the house of Arif in Bahawalpur, where it was revealed that Arif’s real name was Hashim, the sources added. At the time of raid, Soyem of Hashim was being observed. The family was interrogated and they claimed that Hashim was dead. However, the family could not show the dead body or the grave of Hashim, due to which his death became questionable.

Daniel Pearl went to meet someone in the afternoon on Jan 23, when he had received a call on his cellular phone. Having received the call, he left that place and disappeared thereafter. The mobile company concerned was approached but the caller had submitted a fake identity in the name of Siddique.

A senior police official said either Bashir and Siddique were the same person or they were different but, the police were looking for them. The police believed Hashim, Bashir and Siddique were the prime suspects. Although the suspects had not left a track to follow, the police were trying to find a clue to them and had interrogated a lot of people including two journalists, who had assisted Daniel in the recent past.

ASIF SHAHZAD ADDS FROM LAHORE: A special team probing the kidnapping of the US journalist raided different places in the city during the last four days, it is learnt.

Police sources said the team also picked up three men and took them to an unknown place for interrogation, though there was no official confirmation in this regard.

Lahore range DIG Javed Noor confirmed that the team spent some days in the city and did work over the case and also held meetings with different senior police officers. But, he claimed that he had no idea of the investigation side of the case. “All that I know is that there were some officers of the Sindh police working on the case in the city but I really don’t know what they did here,” the DIG said. “I think the team has gone back,” he maintained.

However, another senior police officer on condition of anonymity said that the team raided several places in search of clues leading to the recovery of US journalist Daniel Pearl and arrest of his captors.

The officer said that the team visited the house of Pir Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, a leader of Tanzeem-ul-Fuqra, in the Cantonment area and gathered information as this was the man whom the US journalist had gone to meet before he disappeared some 11 days ago.

There was another man named Bashir who, according to the team, had contacts with Mr Shah in Lahore or had some involvement in the case, the officer said and added that the team also made efforts to track down this man. However, he said that he had no information as to how much the team made success about rounding up Bashir or acquiring information about him.

MOHAMMAD ASGHAR ADDS FROM ISLAMABAD: The scope of investigations in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case has been expanded to other provinces as the law enforcement agencies failed to make any headway despite passage of 11 days, official sources said on Sunday.

Besides the two persons who were picked up on Saturday, the Islamabad police have been questioning some other persons also.

The two suspects, whose identity is being kept secret, are still in the custody of Islamabad police and they have not been shifted to Karachi so far.