Pearl killed after escape attempt, militants claim
The claims about the killing of the 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter do not exonerate British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted with three others on July 15.
Saeed was sentenced to death by hanging and the others received life sentences. However, the fresh allegations could influence the appeal filed by Saeed and the others with the High Court in Sindh province.
Some of the new purported details conflict with evidence presented at the first trial.
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped on January 23 in Karachi while researching links between Pakistani Islamic extremists and Richard Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives in his shoe.
Two police investigators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three militants Naeem Bukhari, Fazal Karim and Zubair Chishti have admitted playing a role in Pearl's kidnapping. They have not been charged, and the Pakistani authorities have not even officially acknowledged they are being held.
The two officers claim the militants said Saeed telephoned them on the evening of January 23 and told them Pearl was en route to the Village Restaurant, where he expected to meet an Islamic activist who was supposedly trying to arrange an interview with a prominent cleric.
Pearl was put in a car, which was followed by another containing three other kidnappers, and taken to a shack.
The two vehicles followed Bukhari, who led the convoy on a motorcycle to the shack where Pearl was to be held.
The investigators said Pearl tried to escape during his sixth day in captivity. However, he was tackled by Karim and Chishti, who beat him and shot him in the leg.
The struggle made so much noise that students at a nearby Islamic school ran out onto the roof to see what was happening, police said.
A day later, police said, Bukhari told his fellow kidnappers they must kill Pearl, although the officers said it was unclear who gave the order.
The kidnappers waited a day while they deliberated issuing a ransom demand, the officers said. Two days later, three Arabs, whom the suspects believed to have been Yemenis, were brought to the hideout, the police said.
The two officers said the militants told them the Arabs were associates of Ramzi Yousef the imprisoned mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
Police said the kidnappers began asking Pearl questions about his religion. One of the Arabs filmed the session. Suddenly, Karim seized Pearl's hands and one of the Arabs slit his throat, the officers said.
The murder was supposed to have been recorded but "the cameraman lost his nerve," one of the policemen said. The videotape was later sent to the US Consulate in Karachi, confirming Pearl was dead.
The effect of the new allegations on the case against Saeed and the three others is unclear. All four were arrested in February before the videotape appeared.
However, the government never alleged that Saeed or the others were personally involved in Pearl's murder. Authorities said they were looking for seven others in the case.
However, a taxi driver testified for the prosecution that he saw Saeed get into the car with Pearl, which differs from the three militants' account.
The body was discovered in a shallow grave while the trial was under way. The government announced the results of DNA tests after the verdict.
Pakistani lawyers said the appeals court could order a new trial if the policemen's account is corroborated.
At the time Pearl's body was discovered, state-run Pakistan Television said police were led to the grave by three members of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Janghvi, a radical Islamic group with links to al-Qaida.
Pearl's body was found on property owned by the Al-Rashid Trust, whose assets were frozen by the US last year after accusations it was a conduit for money to al-Qaida.
The grave was about 500 metres from a large Islamic religious school, called Jamia Rashidia, which is believed to have links to Jaish-e-Mohammed and other al-Qaida-affiliated militant groups.
Pearl's body was flown back to the US and was buried on August 11 in the Los Angeles area.
