Police pessimistic about Pearl's imminent release

Daniel Pearl

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- A senior Pakistani police official expressed pessimism Saturday on what had been growing hopes that kidnapped U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl would soon be released, despite having identified the man police believe is responsible for his capture.

Police believe Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-educated Pakistani militant officials say has ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, is linked to the kidnapping through a collection of e-mails. But Sheikh -- sometimes called "Sheikh Omar" -- is still at large, and Pearl's whereabouts are still unknown.

"It could take one day, it could take five days, it could take seven days, it could take more," the senior official said.

Pakistani police said they have taken into custody two of Sheikh's relatives, who are cooperating with the investigation.

VIDEO CNN's Ben Wedeman says Pakistani police claim to have found the source of e-mails and photos of kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl (February 8) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

CNN obtained copies of e-mails sent to Pearl by Chaudery Bashir Ahmad Shabbir, or simply Bashir -- pseudonyms, investigators say, used by Sheikh. The e-mails indicate that Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was lured into a trap while trying to find sources for a story he was writing on Richard Reid, the man accused of trying to blow up a plane with explosives in his shoes.

"I am sorry to have not replied to you earlier," reads one of the e-mails from Bashir. "I was preoccupied with looking after my wife who has been ill. Please pray for her health."

Pearl and Bashir developed a friendship through the e-mails, addressing one another on increasingly more casual terms. Eventually, Bashir said he could arrange a meeting for Pearl with Sheikh Mubarik ali Gilani, the head of the fundamentalist Islamic Jamaat ul-Fuqra group said to have ties to Reid.

"He [Gilani] has gone to Karachi for a few days, and I am sure that when he returns we can go and see him," reads the e-mail from Bashir to Pearl dated January 16 -- one week before Pearl's disappearance. The same e-mail indicates that Pearl had sent articles, presumably newspaper or magazine articles, to Bashir to pass on to Gilani.

"You are welcome to meet him," reads a passage from the second e-mail, dated January 19. "However, it will be a number of days before he returns to Karachi. If Karachi is in your program you are welcome to see him there."

Police briefly detained Gilani last week for questioning about the kidnapping, but now say they do not believe he had any connection to it.

A third e-mail, dated January 20, states that a disciple of the Sheikh will call Pearl when he arrives in Karachi to arrange the meeting. Pearl, believing he was on his way to meet with Gilani, disappeared January 23, when he had arranged to meet a contact outside a restaurant in southern Karachi.

Pearl's wife, Mariane, said that her husband must have trusted "these people" to head out "without taking care of his security."

A pair of e-mails arrived shortly after the abduction demanded that the United States release Pakistani captives from the Afghan war in return for Pearl's safe release. Earlier this week, Pakistani police arrested three men they say are linked to the computer that sent those e-mails. One of them allegedly told authorities that Sheikh had dictated the wording for the e-mails and provided the photographs of a captive Pearl that accompanied the ransom demands.

Pakistani police say they believe Pearl is still in Karachi, but finding him is proving difficult. Misinformation is a chief cause of the problems, officials say, like a front page newspaper article on Saturday saying Pearl had been released and booked on a Pakistani International Airlines flight to London. That claim, a Wall Street Journal reporter said, is "phenomenally ludicrous."