Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 11, 2002
ISLAMABAD: DESPITE Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf blaming India for the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel
Pearl, police officials in Karachi have expressed serious doubts over the
allegation.
According to The News daily, police
investigators, with the help of the FBI, had established that the three
Indian telephone numbers called from the cellphone that was used to lure
Pearl to a Karachi restaurant were of an Indian Cabinet Minister and two
Members of Parliament in New Delhi.
But it was later found that the.Indian
telephone numbers were listed on an Indian website and it appeared that
the cab to New Delhi were made to deceive the investigators, the newspaper
said.
"So far, the kidnapping seems to
be an indigenous plot, unless (key suspect) Omar Sheikh appears and confesses
to fronting for Indian intelligence," it quoted a senior Pakistani police
official as saying.
Musharraf, in an interview to The
Washington Post, virtually blamed India for the kidnapping, charging that
Indian intelligence agencies may have had a hand in the plot. He suggested
that Pearl, who disappeared in Karachi on January 23, may have been a pawn
in an intelligence 'game' being played by India.
