PAKISTAN: Police in Pakistan searching for a US reporter, Daniel Pearl, who was apparently kidnapped in Karachi last week, said yesterday they were checking possible links to militant Islamic groups, but still had no idea where he was.
A number of Pakistani and US media organisations received an email on Sunday saying Mr Pearl, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal had been kidnapped by a group calling itself "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty".
The email said Mr Pearl (38) was being kept in "inhumane" conditions to protest against US treatment of Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
"We saw that email message and are looking for this group, but it is relatively unknown to us . . . We are looking at every option," a Pakistan police official said.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that his kidnapping may be linked to some Islamic militant group," he added.
The email, which accused Mr Pearl of working for the CIA, included four photographs of Mr Pearl, including one with his wrists chained and a pistol pointed at his head.
Police earlier said they thought the email was a hoax, while the Wall Street Journal and the CIA have said Mr Pearl never worked for the agency.
Meanwhile, US and Afghan forces have stormed a hospital in southern Afghanistan and killed six suspected al-Qaeda militants, ending a tense six-week siege.
Several grenade explosions were heard as the combined forces mounted the final assault early yesterday, after an 11-hour exchange of gunfire in which the Arab gunmen had refused to surrender.
"The Mirwais hospital issue was finally solved. All six men were killed," said Mr Khaled Pashtun, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, adding five Afghans were wounded in the raid.
The operation began about 3 a.m. local time.
Sporadic explosions and gunfire could be heard throughout the day, and witnesses said at last 10 grenade explosions were heard as the US and Afghan troops moved into the hospital in Kandahar city around 2 p.m.
Mr Pashtun claimed the Americans only had a "monitoring" role but an AFP photographer in the hospital throughout the operation said he saw US soldiers firing their weapons.
"They were carrying guns and took position around the hospital. They were shooting at the hospital, retaliating to firing from the Arabs," he said.
"Some of them went inside with the local Afghan soldiers when the final assault was launched."
Hospital staff and patients were in the building at the time of the raid but the Arabs, who were armed with guns and grenades, had been isolated in a separate wing.
The suspected al-Qaeda militants were injured in the US bombing around Kandahar last year and had been holding out in the Mirwais hospital since the Taliban evacuated their former stronghold in December.
They had refused to give up, fearing they would be handed over to US forces.
The suspected militants had managed to gain access to water despite orders from the local authorities to cut supplies.
"We had conducted negotiations with them for one and a half months and we promised them time and again that their lives would be saved if they surrendered," Mr Pashtun said.
"Even when two of them were killed early this morning, we asked them again to surrender but they did not listen to us."