AFP, FRANCE 24 (France)
KARACHI – Pakistani security officials said Monday they have arrested a former senior leader of a banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) who was allegedly involved in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, AFP reported.
Qari Abdul Hayee, popularly known as Asadullah and from Karachi’s eastern Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood, was detained in a raid on his hideout on Sunday, a spokesman for the rangers paramilitary force told AFP.
Asadullah was “involved in several terror acts … and was also in the picture about US journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder case,” said the spokesman without going into details.
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Pearl, in a screenshot of a video taken by his captors – Photo: WhisperToMe
Daniel Pearl, 38, was the south Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants.
Less than a month later, a video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city.
Pakistani police blamed Pearl’s kidnapping and beheading on a group of Islamic militants led by Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, also know was Sheikh Omar.
The British-born extremist was arrested with three other suspects. They were charged and convicted for murder for their part in the kidnapping and murder of Pearl. Sheikh Omar and three others who were jailed for life lodged appeals that are pending in Sindh Province reports AFP.
