Purported kidnappers extend deadline to kill reporter
January 31, 2002 Posted: 12:43 PM EST (1743 GMT)

The group's e-mails have contained pictures of Pearl, some of which show a gun pointed at his head 
KARACHI, Pakistan -- A group purporting to be the kidnappers of a U.S. journalist in Pakistan said it would extend the deadline to kill him to Friday -- thus giving him a day's reprieve. 

Writers claiming to be holding Pearl sent an unsigned e-mail to Pakistani and Western media. They said they would wait another day for their demands -- to release Pakistanis held by the United States in the war on terror -- to be met before killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. A senior Bush administration official said the e-mail was "real." 

The kidnappers had on Wednesday threatened to kill him in 24 hours, which would have expired today, if those demands weren't met. 

The report comes as The Wall Street Journal's managing editor Paul Steiger issued a statement on Thursday, addressed to Pearl's captors, urging them not to kill him

Pearl went missing in Karachi, Pakistan, last week and is being held by captors calling themselves "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani 

Sovereignty." He was in Pakistan researching a story on Richard Reid, the man suspected of trying to set off explosives hidden in his shoes while aboard an airplane. 

Through a series of e-mails, the kidnappers have demanded the release of all captured Pakistanis and also warned other American reporters to leave Pakistan within three days, which would be Saturday. 

Meanwhile, a person who apparently helped arrange an interview for Pearl with the religious leader of a fundamentalist Muslim group is dead, the inspector general of the Karachi police said Thursday. 

Inspector General Syed Kamal Shah identified the man, who died Wednesday, as Arif and said police don't know how or why he died. 

Pearl was abducted while on his way to that interview, which he believed was to be with Sheikh Mubarik ali Gilani, the head of Jamaat ul-Fuqra group, about Reid, the shoe bombing suspect now in jail in the United States. 

A spokesman for Gilani's group denied any involvement in the kidnapping, and a friend of the sheikh, Khalid Khwaja, told CNN no arrangements had ever been made with Pearl, and there are no connections between the kidnappers and Gilani, nor any with Reid. Nonetheless, Gilani turned himself in to police Wednesday. 

Pakistani police announced Thursday they have taken three additional men into custody after tracing their cell phone calls. The police said nothing further about progress in the case. 

In his appeal for Pearl's release, Steiger, Wall Street Journal managing editor, wrote: "Killing Danny will achieve nothing for you. His murder would be condemned by the entire world, and your group would be viewed as murderers without serious political objectives. 

"Only through Danny's safe release can your group have the opportunity to tell your side of the story and to have the entire world focus on your words." 

Steiger proposed the group "view Danny as a messenger," giving him a list of issues and grievances and allowing Pearl to make them public. 

Steiger's statement was sent to international media outlets in hopes of making it public because the kidnapper's e-mail address, printed in newspaper reports when the story first emerged, has been swamped with incoming messages and rendered inaccessible. 

'Indian connection'
Pakistani officials say they are making progress in the case, with foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan stating on Thursday that he holds some hope of success. 

"The government of Pakistan is making every effort possible for the release of the journalist," Khan said. "There is some progress being made." 

At an earlier briefing Major General Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Pakistan's president, said there was an Indian connection to Pearl's disappearance but would not say what that link was. 

In New Delhi, an Indian foreign ministry spokeswoman said the assertion was ridiculous. 

"This is just one more example of the Pakistani military establishment imagination running riot. What else can one say? It has the stamp of ridiculous written all over it," she said. 

Pakistani police announced Thursday that they have taken three additional men into custody after tracing their cell phone calls. 

The police said nothing further about progress in the case. 

That brings to at least four the number of people being held in connection with the case. 

Pakistani authorities are also holding the head of the fundamentalist Islamic Jamaat ul-Fuqra group, Sheikh Mubarik ali Gilani -- the man whom Pearl was going to meet on January 23 when he was abducted -- after he turned himself in on Wednesday. 

A spokesman for Gilani's group denied involvement in the kidnapping, and a friend of the sheikh, Khalid Khwaja, told CNN no arrangements had ever been made with Pearl. 

Spy claims
In the captor's first e-mail over the weekend, it claimed Pearl, 38, was a CIA agent, an accusation denied by U.S. officials and the Wall Street Journal. 

In an e-mail Wednesday, the kidnappers said they had determined that Pearl does not work for the CIA, but "in fact he is working for the Mossad," the Israeli intelligence agency -- a claim denied by Israeli officials. 


Pearl was on his way to meet Gilani when he was kidnapped. 
The group's e-mails have contained pictures of Pearl, some of which show a gun pointed at his head. 

Steiger appealed to the group to consider the pleas of Pearl's wife, Marianne, who is six months pregnant with the couple's first child. 

She told CNN Wednesday the kidnappers should opt for dialogue, not violence. 

"I haven't slept for six days ... but I have hope. I am not desperate, because if I stop believing in creating this dialogue, then I stop believing everything else," she said. "I can't do that. I'm pregnant." 

 

'Compassion' urged
Joining the pleas for Pearl's release was former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. 

In a statement released Wednesday, Ali urged the reporter's abductors to show "compassion and kindness" by releasing Pearl safely to his family. 

Ali, a longtime Muslim, urged the kidnappers to treat Pearl as they would want all Muslims to be treated. 

"Daniel should not become another victim of the ongoing conflict. I appeal to you to show Daniel Pearl compassion and kindness," he said. "Give hope and belief that Allah will guide us through these difficult times." 

U.S. authorities are in close contact with officials in Pakistan investigating Pearl's abduction.