Pakistani militant Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of the three freed in 1999 by India at Kandahar in exchange for passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane and later arrested for the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, was the one who made hoax calls to President Asif Ali Zardari and the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in a bid to heighten Pakistan-India tensions after last year’s terrorist attacks on Mumbai, investigators have told 'Dawn'.

“Omar Saeed Sheikh was the hoax caller. It was he who threatened the civilian and military leaderships of Pakistan over telephone. And he did so from inside Hyderabad jail,” investigators said.

The controversy came to light after Dawn broke the story, one year ago, that a hoax caller claiming to be then Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was making threatening calls to President Zardari.

It was on the night of November 26 last year that Saadia Omar, Omar Sheikh’s wife, informed him about the carnage in Mumbai. Sources said that the information was passed on to Omar in Hyderabad jail through his mobile phone, which he was secretly using without the knowledge of the administration.

Saadia kept updating Omar about the massacre through the night and small hours of the morning. On the night of November 28, when the authorities had regained control over the better part of the city, Omar Saeed, using a UK-registered mobile SIM, made a phone call to Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

He told an operator handling Mukherjee’s calls that he was the President of Pakistan. Indian officials started verification as part of security precautions and, after some time, the operator informed Omar that the Foreign Minister would get in touch with him soon.

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