Daniel Pearl Murder Suspect Nabbed in Pakistan

Daniel Pearl Image by getty images
Pakistan has arrested a former militant leader in connection with the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, security officials said on Monday.
Qari Abdul Hai, once a leader of the outlawed Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), was arrested on Sunday during a security crackdown in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, said the officials.
Pearl, an American, was kidnapped in Karachi while researching a story on Islamist militants in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda militant who claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks, said he beheaded Pearl after his abduction.
It was not clear what role Hai was suspected of playing in the abduction and murder.
The LeJ has emerged as a major security threat in Pakistan. It has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings that killed hundreds of Shi’ites this year.
Security officials said Hai was linked to several attacks on Western targets since Pearl’s death.
A Pakistani court sentenced British-born militant Omar Sheikh to death for killing Pearl.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO