While the official investigation into the death of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl appears to have run into something of a dead-end, there have been persistent rumours amongst militant circles in Multan that Pearl was brought to the area after his abduction and may, in fact, have been murdered there.
These rumours link elements within the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JM) to Pearl's kidnapping, with one source pointing out that "Omar Sheikh himself is a protege of JM leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, and it is this group that abducted Pearl".
Indeed, it is also thought that the decision by Omar to hand himself in was "taken collectively" and that he is, in fact, being used as a kind of decoy.
Sources suggest that if the rumours persisting among militants, particularly those linked to the JM and the Harkatul Mujahideen, are true, then it would seem that after his kidnapping, Pearl was brought to "some part of the southern Punjab" and possibly murdered there.
Official sources deny there is anything behind such conjecture and dismiss it as "mere speculation".
Despite this, however, intelligence sources concede that an "area of especially close concentration" in their line of work is the southern Punjab, because of the concentration of extremist groups in these areas.
"It is possible that information about Daniel Pearl is circulating among militants here". According to them, Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi by a group that has a "base" in the southern Punjab.
He is then thought to have been brought here and killed within days or even hours of the abduction.
Pearl was murdered in Multan area
While the official investigation into the death of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl appears to have run into something of a dead-end, there have been persistent rumours amongst militant circles in Multan that Pearl was brought to the area after his abduction and may, in fact, have been murdered there.
