SUSPECT IN DANIEL PEARL KILLING ARRESTED

Suspect in Pearl killing arrested in Pakistan: Hashim Qadeer allegedly set up meeting between U.S. reporter and killer (MSNBC)

LAHORE, Pakistan - Police and intelligence agents Wednesday arrested a suspected militant who was wanted for a role in the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, officials said. The man, identified as Hashim Qadeer, was captured from a bus at a terminal in the eastern Pakistan city of Gujranwala, police and intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Both requested anonymity because they are not authorized to make media statements.

Pearl was kidnapped and later beheaded in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi in 2002 after being abducted while he was researching a story on Islamic militancy. Months later, a court in Karachi convicted four Islamic militants in Pearl’s killing, including British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death. The three others were given life imprisonment.

The Karachi-based intelligence official said Qadeer is believed to have arranged a meeting between Sheikh and Pearl at a hotel in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital of Islamabad.

Two other militants wanted in Pearl’s case were killed in shootouts with security forces last year. Five others remained at large, and Qadeer was one of them, the police official said. In 2003, authorities listed Qadeer among the country’s 40 most-wanted men.