Hearing delayed for 3 arrested in reporter's kidnapping

Walll Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, 38, disappeared January 23 in Pakistan.

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- The first court appearance of three men arrested in connection with the kidnapping of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl was delayed Monday for legal reasons.

An administrative judge in Karachi postponed the remand hearing until Tuesday, while he seeks clarification of a controversial new Pakistani anti-terrorism law.

The men have not been charged but are being held in connection with the case.

Pakistani police detained the men Tuesday in connection with e-mails purportedly sent by kidnappers showing photographs of Pearl, 38, a Wall Street Journal reporter. Police formally arrested the men Friday.

Police said they believe Pearl is still in Karachi, but finding him has proved difficult. Misinformation is a chief cause of the problems, officials said, such as a newspaper article Saturday saying Pearl had been released and booked on a flight to London. That claim, another Wall Street Journal reporter said, is "phenomenally ludicrous."

Over the weekend, a senior Pakistani police official expressed pessimism that Pearl soon would be released despite the identification of a man police believe is responsible for the kidnapping.

Police suspect that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-educated Pakistani militant whom 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" -- remains at large, and Pearl's whereabouts are 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 detained two of Sheikh's relatives, whom they said are cooperating with the investigation.

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 was lured into a trap while trying to find sources for an article 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 stories, 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 said they do not now believe he had any connection to it.

A third e-mail, dated January 20, states that a disciple will call Pearl when he arrives in Karachi to arrange the meeting. Pearl 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, demanding that the United States release Pakistani captives from the Afghan war in return for Pearl's safe release.