Pakistani media reports from 2003 said "Abdul Hayee, " a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader, was arrested that year in Punjab and had connections to the murder of Mr. Pearl.
Pakistan's intelligence agencies helped nurture Sunni militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in the 1980s and 1990s to counter a perceived threat from neighboring Iran, which is mostly Shiite.