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Pakistani officials said today they have captured Qari Abdul Hayee, a terrorist leader who has been linked to the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Hayee was taken into custody Sunday in Karachi by the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary unit, ABC News reports. Pearl, who grew up in Los Angeles, was kidnapped while going to interview a Pakistani militant and was beheaded on video by his captors. Self-described 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is being held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, reportedly confessed to killing Pearl but has never been charged. ABC News says that Pakistani officials don't believe that Hayee carried out the murder, but was "privy to the whole situation."
Other media spell the suspect's name as Qari Abdul Hai, and he's said to use an alias of Asadullah. Pakistan Today said he was wanted in multiple incidents of terrorism since 1994 and that he planned to attack American troops at Karachi airport in December 2012.
Pearl grew up in the San Fernando Valley and graduated from Birmingham High School, where a magnet school now bears his name. The Los Angeles Press Club bestows the annual Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity. The Daniel Pearl Foundation is based in Encino and among other activities presents the annual Daniel Pearl Lecture at UCLA.
Previously on LA Observed:
Mormons baptize Daniel Pearl in proxy ritual
The Pearl Project: 27 involved in Daniel Pearl's murder, half still free
