Toronto, Sept 28: Angered by President Pervez Musharraf's suggestion that American journalist Daniel Pearl died because he was getting too close to extremists, the reporter's parents have said the Pakistani leader needs to answer some tough questions about possible links between the killers and the intelligence agency ISI, instead of blaming the victim. Reached at their home in California on Saturday, Pearl's parents denounced the suggestion that their son somehow shared responsibility for his own death. Judea Pearl said Musharraf was obviously "trying to exonerate himself and the people he works with, the ISI." Ruth Pearl said Musharraf seemed to be "blaming the victim" for what happened, when her son was simply doing his job as a journalist, Canadian newspaper 'The Globe and Mail' reported. Musharraf had earlier been asked about the Wall Street Journal reporter's slaying last year, to which he replied that the death was a very sad case, but it happened because Pearl fell in with groups that had dangerous connections. "He kept moving down inside into this world of extremism himself. And, unfortunately, then, whatever happened happened," he said.
French author Bernard-Henri Livy has asserted in a new book that pearl was killed because he was about to report that Pakistani authorities maintained close links with Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The book raises "major questions that the (Musharraf) government has never responded to," Mrs Pearl said.
Bureau report