Pakistan sets up cyber crime wing
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Pearl's kidnappers released a picture of him on the Internet.
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A Pakistani security agency has launched a special wing to combat cyber crimes in part because the country had to rely on U.S. investigators to trace e-mails sent by the kidnappers of American journalist Daniel Pearl a year ago.
"The purpose of establishing the National Response Center for Cyber Crimes is to stop misuse of the Internet and trace those involved in cyber-related crimes," Iftikhar Ahmad, spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"The importance of this special wing was felt when Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, and his captors started sending e-mails to newspapers," he said.
The Wall Street Journal correspondent disappeared on January 23, 2002 from Pakistan's southern city of Karachi.
The move comes as Pakistan cracks down on terrorists.
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On January 27, 2002, the Journal and other media received an e-mail from a group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. The e-mail contained a photo of Pearl, 38, with a gun to his head.
The FBI traced the e-mails, and police captured those who allegedly sent them to the newspapers, but, on February 21, 2002, the U.S. Embassy received a videotape showing Pearl was dead.
"The National Response Center for Cyber Crimes will play a key role in the days to come in tracing those terrorists who often use the Internet or prepaid telephone cards to communicate messages to their associates for carrying out acts of terrorism and other purposes," Ahmad said.
The special wing has been established at the headquarters of an intelligence agency in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
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