Toronto: Angered by President Pervez Musharraf's suggestion that US journalist Daniel Pearl died because he was getting too close to extremists, the reporter's parents have said the Pakistani leader needs to answer some tough questions about possible links between the killers and intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), instead of blaming the victim.

Reached at their home in California on September 27, Pearl's parents denounced the suggestion that their son somehow shared responsibility for his own death.

Judea Pearl said Musharraf was obviously "trying to exonerate himself and the people he works with, the ISI".

Ruth Pearl said Musharraf seemed to be "blaming the victim" for what happened, when her son was simply doing his job as a journalist, Canadian newspaper 'The Globe and Mail' reported.

Musharraf, during a special session Friday of the Commons foreign affairs committee, was asked about 'The Wall Street Journal' reporter's slaying last year. He replied that the death was a very sad case, but it came about because Pearl fell in with groups that had dangerous connections.



"He kept moving down inside into this world of extremism himself. And, unfortunately, then, whatever happened, happened," he said.

French author Bernard-Henri Livy has asserted in a new book that Pearl was killed because he was about to report that Pakistani authorities maintained close links with al-Qaida terrorists.

The book raises "major questions that the (Musharraf) government has never responded to," Pearl said.

PTI