The police and other agencies are still clueless about the captors of US journalist, Daniel Pearl, and investigation seems to have come to a standstill. "There has been no significant progress in the case," said a senior police official on Monday.
A day earlier, the police had claimed that they were making efforts to arrest Amjad Farooqui, the man believed to have abducted Daniel Pearl on Jan 23. "His arrest may lead the police to the real captors," the official had said. Although the police had picked up some more suspects for their alleged connection with Amjad Farooqui, efforts to find the man himself remained unfruitful. The police had earlier claimed that the case could be solved if the key suspect, British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, was arrested.
According to sources, Omar had told the interrogators that he had asked the captors to release Daniel Pearl but now he says he does not know his whereabouts, not even sure whether he is dead or alive. Now the police officials claim that Amjad Farooqui is the abductor and his arrest would lead to Pearl's being found. The sources in the police department, however, fear that Amjad Farooqui may also not be helpful, as the captors might have handed the journalist over to others of their ilk. The sources said either the kidnappers belonged to a well-organized group or worked for different, but close-knit, outfits. The police had picked up one, Haji Laloo, from Super Highway on Sunday, and he was being quizzed. Laloo, the police sources said, was an alleged hardened criminal who provided shelter to other criminals and kidnap victims. He was allegedly involved in the carjacking racket. The police thought that Haji Laloo might have some links with Ahmed Omar Shaikh or Amjad Farooqui and could provide useful leads. But the sources said Haji Laloo had disappointed the police and added to their anxiety, when he told the investigators that he had played no role in Pearl's kidnapping. The police appeared to be groping in the dark as they picked up suspects on information provided by their 'informers'. Those with a criminal record or ones having previously been bailed out in kidnap cases were being hauled up and interrogated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2002 8:39:31 PM ||
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The United States has confirmed its warplanes bombed "enemy positions" in eastern Afghanistan to help defend friendly forces, amid reports an Afghan government soldier was killed in a US raid in the region. The US military's Central Command issued a statement on Sunday saying the bombing attacks occurred over the weekend without disclosing exactly where or if there were any casualties. The statement was released after the son of a warlord in the eastern province of Khost said a US bombing raid there had killed a government security force member and injured four others.
Abdul Wali, the son of regional warlord Padsha Khan, said the US bombing raid occurred following an armed clash between tribes near the village of Gurboz, some five kilometres from Khost city. "The Americans have not bombed any villages but they did bomb an ammunition depot," he said. "Four people have been wounded and one killed from the security forces of Khost province." The Central Command statement said US warplanes dropped precision-guided bombs when pro-Kabul government forces came under attack from enemy troops about on Saturday in eastern Afghanistan. The statement said the pro-government forces had called in the airstrike after enemy troops fired on them as they attempted to pass a roadblock. The US aircraft returned on Sunday for a follow-up strike, dropping more precision-guided weapons. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) had earlier reported that local security forces had come under attack from feuding tribesmen as they responded to fighting in the district of Farm Bagh district, 30kms east of Khost, on Saturday. A local resident, Zahir Shah, said US jets flew over the troubled town and dropped some bombs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2002 8:45:23 PM ||
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Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi said on Monday that exiled Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was free to leave Iran. "If Mr Hekmatyar wants to leave, we will not stop him," Mr Kharazi told a press conference a week after the Iranian authorities, accused by Washington of meddling in Afghanistan, closed the warlord's local offices.
A spokesman for the Iranian interior ministry said at the time the government envisaged Mr Hekmatyar's expulsion from the country. Mr Hekmatyar, head of the Hizb-i-Islami party and a former prime minister, fought against the Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s, but in the civil war that followed Moscow's pullout was vilified for reducing much of Kabul to ruins in a siege of the capital. An opponent of both the former ruling Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance, his calls for national unity after US attacks began against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda network on Oct 7 were disregarded. He considered the Karzai government to have no legitimacy. The closure of his offices followed accusations by the United States that Iran, though an ally of the Northern Alliance, was trying to destabilize the Karzai government.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2002 8:47:23 PM ||
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The Israeli Army yesterday sealed off the West Bank town of Jericho, Palestinian security officials said as four Israelis and two Palestinians were killed in two separate attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday. In Tel Aviv, Israeli minister without portfolio Danny Naveh told Israel Army radio Israel should reoccupy part of the territories under Palestinian control in order to prevent attacks by Palestinian groups. The Israeli minister said: âFor the first time I propose a partial re-occupation of Zone A territory, as well as much more far-reaching military operations against terrorism.â
Meanwhile, the statement of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy Premier and commander of the National Guard, was welcomed and backed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Crown Prince Abdullah had said in an interview to The New York Times that the Kingdom would consider normalizing relations with Israel and swaying the Arab League to do the same if Israel carried out a full withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2002 8:37:23 PM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
