• Pakistan captures suspect in death of journalist Daniel Pearl, officials say

    Pakistani officials have confirmed the arrest of a former militant leader who they say took part in the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl in Karachi 11 years ago.

    Editor's note: This story includes a correction.

    By Waj S. Khan, Producer, NBC News

    ISLAMABAD -- A suspect has been captured in connection with the 2002 murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, Pakistani officials said Tuesday.

    A spokesman for Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations Directorate confirmed the arrest by a paramilitary unit known as the Sindh Rangers and said the suspect had been transferred to police custody. 

    Qari Abdul Hayee, who is also known as Asadullah, had been sought in connection with terrorist activities dating back almost two decades, including his suspected involvement in Pearl's slaying. 

    Saeed was apprehended in a "covert joint intelligence operation where street intelligence, signals intelligence, agents as well as his own associates spilling the beans led us to him," according to the Sindh Rangers' operational commander who led the raid.

    Pearl, 38, was South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and was researching a story about Islamist militants when he was abducted and beheaded in January 2002.

    Saeed is notorious for being the former religious leader of the Karachi chapter of the feared Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (The Army of Jhang), a hardline-Sunni militant group that has targeted Pakistan's Shiite minority and become an ally of the Pakistani Taliban.

    A military profile of Saeed shared with NBC News shows the alleged depth of his almost two decades of participation in organized militancy. It accuses him of organizing prison breakouts, attempting to kidnap former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's family, planning a foiled suicide attack on a hotel in Karachi where American soldiers were lodge as well as Pearl's murder.

    Saeed had also been the subject of a manhunt launched because of his suspected involvement in a recent bombing in the Shiite-majority Abbas Town district of Karachi that killed almost 50 residents and destroyed entire blocks of apartments. 

    Pearl's parents, Judea and Ruth Pearl, said in a statement released Monday: "We are gratified with this latest arrest and hope that justice will be served in a timely manner on all of those who were involved in the abduction and murder of our son, Danny."

    Related:

    Full Pakistan coverage from NBC News

    This story was originally published on Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:29 AM EDT

  • Pakistan Taliban: We'll 'avoid' kidnapping or killing civilians

    By Mushtaq Yusufzai, NBC News producer

    ISLAMABAD -- Taliban factions in Pakistan have agreed to avoid killing or kidnapping innocent civilians but threatened they would continue suicide attacks and fighting against the country's security forces and their allies.

    The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), headed by Hakimullah Mahsud, also confirmed it would continue to take part in attacks in Afghanistan.

    Victims of the Taliban in Pakistan include Daniel Pearl, the American Wall Street Journal reporter abducted in Karachi in 2002 and beheaded. His remains were found in a shallow grave on the city's outskirts three months later.

    "Yes we signed accord with three other major Taliban groups of Maulvi Nazeer, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and an Afghan Taliban faction to avoid killing of innocent people and kidnapping for ransom but we did not agree with them to stop suicide attacks and our fight against Pakistani security forces," TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told NBC News by telephone from somewhere in the tribal areas.

    The TTP, he said, has neither announced any ceasefire nor has any plan to do so in the near future, warning that their fighters would continue their operations in Pakistan.

    He denied reports, attributed to Afghan Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, that the TTP would move its attacks from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

    "Look, for us Pakistan is as important as Afghanistan, therefore we can not stop our activities here," he insisted.

    He also denied differences between the TTP leadership, saying Hakimullah Mahsud was still leader of the Pakistani Taliban and Maulana Waliur Rahman as his deputy.

    Pakistan media have reported conflicting statements over a possible peace process between the government and militant groups since September, when political parties urged a new effort at seeking talks.

    Militants and troops have continued to fight in several of the seven ethnic Pashtun tribal districts that form the main base of the Taliban movement.

    Almost 20,000 people have been killed in insurgent violence in Pakistan since 2009, according to a database maintained by the New Delhi, India-based South Asia Terrorism portal.

    Two people were killed and 15 wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in a market in Peshawar, capital of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, police officials said on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.