Al-Qaida linked to reporter's murder

An al-Qaida militant arrested with September 11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh in Karachi has been identified as one of the murderers of reporter Daniel Pearl, a senior police official said today.

The identification was made by Pakistani Fazal Karim who has been held but not charged following the gruesome killing of the Wall Street Journal reporter, said the official.

Karim’s statement is the first evidence that al-Qaida may have been involved in Pearl’s death.

The official said Karim was taken to an intelligence agency safe house where 10 suspects, including Binalshibh, were held. Most of them were Yemenis, officials have said.

The official refused to identify the alleged Pearl killer by name but said he was not among the five people, including Binalshibh, who were handed to US authorities yesterday and flown out of the country.

Pearl was kidnapped in January while investigating links between Pakistani militants and Londoner Richard Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives in his shoes.

Pearl’s dismembered body was found in May in a shallow grave in Karachi.

Police officials have said they were led to the grave by Karim and two other men.

In July, Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from Wanstead, east London, was sentenced to death for Pearl’s murder and kidnapping