KARACHI: Pakistani security officials said yesterday they had arrested a former leader of a banned militant outfit allegedly involved in the 2002 murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
Qari Abdul Hayee, known as Asadullah, from Karachi’s eastern Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighbourhood, was detained in a raid on his hideout on Sunday.
He headed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in the southern province of Sindh and was “involved in several terror acts”, an official said, adding he was also involved in Pearl’s murder.
Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002, while researching a story about Islamist militants. A video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate nearly a month later. In 2003, LeJ sent parcel bombs to police, injuring many people. In December 2002, it planned a suicide attack on a hotel near Karachi airport but the bomb exploded while being prepared and killed an associate of Asadullah. AFP
