Pakistan police today arrested a Muslim militant Mr Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani wanted in connection with the disappearance of US journalist Mr Daniel Pearl, senior officials said.
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A recent photo of disappeared US journalist Mr Daniel Pearl
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But there was no sign of Mr Pearl, a
Wall Street Journal
reporter who was last seen in the southern port city of Karachi a week ago.
The 38-year-old Mr Pearl disappeared after telling his wife he was going to interview Mr Gilani, a leader of a little known militant Muslim group Tanzeem-ul-Fuqra based in the eastern city of Lahore.
Mr Gilani, whose organisation is believed to have links with Mr Richard Reid, the alleged shoe bomber overpowered on a Paris-Miami flight on December 22nd, was found alone in a house in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
The arrest came after police said they had widened the search for Mr Pearl.
An unknown group called the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty claimed it had kidnapped Mr Pearl in an e-mail to the Wall Street Journal.
They accused Mr Pearl of being a "CIA officer ... posing as a journalist," a claim denied by both the CIA and the Wall Street Journal.
The e-mail contained pictures of Mr Pearl in captivity, including one with a gun pointed at his head, and protested against the US treatment of prisoners from Afghanistan and Pakistan held in Cuba.
AFP