The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty

Reporter Daniel Pearl’s kidnappers e-mail the media a picture of Pearl and a list of very strange demands. [BBC, 7/5/2002] The kidnappers call themselves “The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty,” a previously unheard of name. [Vanity Fair, 8/2002] Their demands include the return of US-held Pakistani prisoners and the departure of US journalists from Pakistan. [ABC News, 2/7/2002] Most unusually, they demand that the US sell F-16 fighters to Pakistan. No militant group had ever shown interest in the F-16’s, but this demand and the others reflect the desires of Pakistan’s military and the ISI to obtain the fighters. [London Times, 4/21/2002; Guardian, 7/16/2002] On January 29, “a senior Pakistani official,” presumably from the ISI, leaks the fact that Pearl is Jewish to the Pakistani press. This may have been an attempt to ensure the kidnappers would want to murder him, which they do shortly thereafter. [Vanity Fair, 8/2002] On the same day, it is reported that US intelligence believes the kidnappers are connected to the ISI. [United Press International, 1/29/2002]