By: The former top al-Qaida operative accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks either killed or participated in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Pakistan's president has alleged for the first time.
In his memoirs released this week, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf accused Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of taking part in Pearl's killing in the southern port city of Karachi following his Jan. 23, 2002 kidnapping. Mohammed is in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay.
"The man who may have actually killed Pearl or at least participated in his butchery, we eventually discovered, was none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaida's No. 3," Musharraf wrote in "In The Line of Fire," which was released Monday.
Mohammed has never been officially linked to Pearl's murder during police investigations or the trial that resulted in four Islamic militants being convicted and sentenced to death for the killing.
But some U.S. officials and Pearl's newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, suggested that Mohammed had killed the journalist. Pakistan denied the claims at the time.
On Wednesday, Ria Bashir, lawyer for British-born Pakistani Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, said he will petition the Sindh High Court in Karachi within 10 days to let him introduce Musharraf's book as evidence in his client's appeal case, which began in January 2003.
Sheikh and three other Islamic militants were convicted in July 2002 of killing Pearl. They have all since appealed the ruling.
Musharraf also wrote that Mohammed was linked to the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings, and plans to attack Heathrow airport with hijacked passenger planes. The allegation was the first publicly linking Mohammed to the subway attacks, which killed 52 people and four bombers.
Mohammed would have had to initiate the plans for the London subway and Heathrow plots before his March 2003 arrest.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here