Paris, Apr 29: Daniel Pearl, the US reporter beheaded in Karachi last year, was killed because he had discovered dangerous secrets about Pakistani involvement in Islamic extremism, according to an investigation by French philosopher and media personality Bernard-Henri Levy. "He was the man who knew too much. His work as a journalist took him down trails which he should probably never have followed. "Basically he was killed to stop him writing an article," said Levy, author of "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?" which has just been published in France. Pearl, who was 38, was kidnapped in January 2002 while working on a story about Islamic militants for the 'Wall Street Journal'. His remains were found in May after a gruesome video showing his murder was sent to a news agency in Karachi. In a 525-page volume Levy retraces the reporter's last steps in freedom, and the trap set for him by Omar Sheikh, the British-born Islamic extremist - sentenced to death in Pakistan for the murder last year - who forms the book's counter-theme. According to Levy, Sheikh was acting for the Pakistani intelligence services. "Pearl's assassin was not a fanatic but an agent- a double-agent - of the Pakistani secret services, and also of al-Qaeda," he told 'Le Figaro' newspaper. The reporter, who was lured into captivity by the promise of an interview with leading Islamic militant Mubarak Gilani, may have been about to expose how close al-Qaeda was to acquiring nuclear weapons from supporters inside the Pakistani scientific establishment, according to Levy.

Bureau Report