A MAN believed to have links with the disappearance of a Blackburn student is due to appear in court today, accused of the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Mr Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and was kidnapped while researching links between Pakistani extremists and 'shoe-bombing' suspect Richard Reid.
US diplomats received a videotape last month which showed Mr Pearl was dead. His body has not been found.
The chief suspect in his kidnapping and slaying, British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, goes on trial today before Pakistan's anti-terrorism court.
Authorities have discovered links between Sheikh's group and the group that was responsible for the kidnapping of Paul Wells, who went missing from Kashmir in 1995.
Paul, whose family lived in Feniscowles, Blackburn and Keith Mangan, from Middlesbrough, were kidnapped in an attempt by Islamic militants to get Sheikh, a London School of Economics dropout, and 21 other terror suspects freed from Indian prisons.
Paul's body has never been recovered, although his family have said they believe he is dead.
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