Author: K. P. Nayar
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: February 24, 2002
Even as a debate rages in Washington
about General Pervez Musharraf's ability to steer his country along the
road of further reform, more details - worrying for the Americans - are
emerging about how the Pakistanis went about investigating the Daniel Pearl
kidnapping.
Leaks from Pakistani investigators
have now established that Omar Sheikh, the main accused, surrendered to
Ejaz Shah, the home secretary of Punjab province, and was not arrested
by Punjab police.
Shah was chief of the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) apparatus in Punjab until almost the beginning of last
year. He was then handpicked by Musharraf to be chief secretary in Pakistan's
most sensitive province over which the general has been struggling to establish
control.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
was the first to say at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh after Islamabad
announced Omar's 'arrest' that the man 'wanted' for Pearl's abduction has
actually been in Pakistani custody much before his arrest was made public.
In Washington, Vajpayee's claim
was dismissed by sources familiar with the investigation as a product of
Uttar Pradesh's election fever - until Omar himself claimed in court on
February 14 that he surrendered to the authorities nine days earlier.
It now turns out that Omar was under
the protection of those who have been described to sources here as "non-police
people" during these nine days.
Such details trickling in here have
raised questions about a continuing nexus between those in the ISI, who
made the Taliban and the Kashmiri jihad possible, and the Musharraf government.
It has raised serious questions
here about how much Musharraf can deliver to the Americans at a time when
the anti-terrorist coalition has failed in apprehending hardly anyone in
the entire leadership of either the al Qaida or the Taliban.
State department spokesman Richard
Boucher was peppered yesterday with questions about any role of the ISI
in the kidnapping.
An exasperated Boucher said: "I
can't rule out that Martians were involved... I don't want to be facetious
on this, but you are asking me to speak for every member of a foreign government
organisation. I don't do that, whatever the question is.
"And I can tell you on the positive
side, on the factual side - not to speculate on this, that or the other
- but on the factual side that every possible agency of the Pakistani government
has been involved, and we felt the cooperation was excellent."
What should worry India in the context
of the latest investigations is that Amjad Hassan Farooqi, a key link in
the probe, is said to have slipped into Jammu and Kashmir last week.
The investigators have now established
that it was Farooqi who picked up Pearl from a Karachi restaurant where
he was to meet his militant contacts for a story on January 23. When the
police reached Farooqi's home, his family said he had left for Kashmir.
