The kidnappers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl have been in contact by telephone with Indian government officials, Pakistani foreign minister Abdul Sattar said, on Friday.
Sattar, on an official visit to Berlin, said the information was based on records for a cell phone used by the lead kidnapper, whom he identified as Mubarak Shah. The records were obtained by Pakistani Police, Sattar said. The exact connection to India was unclear, Sattar said. "I want to be careful, we are not alleging that this person was working in complicity with somebody in India, but this fact I think should be known."
"Our police authorities were able to obtain a copy of the bill of the mobile telephone that was used by the person alleged to be the kidnapper - I myself saw the information that was gleaned from that bill - that this person, named Mubarak Shah, had made a number of foreign calls," Sattar said.
Included among the numbers that he called in India were the numbers of persons who occupied certain important position in Indian government.
Pressed for details on the officials` identities, he refused to elaborate. An e-mail sent last weekend by the previously unknown national movement for the restoration of Pakistani sovereignty demanded better treatment for Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that Pakistani prisoners be returned to Pakistan for trial.
Bureau Report