A French intellectual and leading human rights activist says he has compelling evidence that the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl was masterminded by an agent of Pakistan's ISI.

Bernard-Henry Levy, author of the best selling book 'Who Killed Daniel Pearl', has told rediff.com that the man who lured Pearl into a trap by promising to facilitate an interview with the chief of a terrorist group, was hired by the ISI while he was a first year university student at the London School of Economics.

Levy, who is in London to participate in a debate on American foreign policy, says Omar Sheikh was picked by the ISI because his British passport made it easier for him to be infiltrated into India.

Describing how Sheikh arrived in New Delhi in 1994 with the mission of kidnapping foreigners to exchange them for imprisoned Harkat ul-Mujahideen leader Masood Azhar, Levy says Sheikh was by then a paid ISI agent.

Sheikh's arrest later and the exchange of prisoners for the passengers of the hijacked IC 814 IA flight paved the way for the next stage of Sheikh's career, claims Levy.
 
He believes it was Sheikh's British training and accent that were deemed invaluable in trapping Pearl.

Quoting from the transcript of Sheikh's interrogation by Indian security officials in New Delhi, Levy names two members of the Pakistani army's Special Services Group -- Subedar Saleem and Subedar Abdul Hafeez -- as the persons who trained Sheikh in the use of  guns, rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives.

Quoting Indian officials from the Research and Analysis Wing, Levy says ISI paid for Sheikh's lawyer when he was arrested in India and it was an ISI colonel who met and debriefed him in Afghanistan after he was released following the
IC 814 hijacking.

Quoting another Indian security official, A K Doval of the Intelligence Bureau, Levy says an ISI official was overheard at Kandahar airport as telling Sheikh: "So, back to Kandahar. I'm so happy to see you."

By the time Sheikh was being primed for the Pearl assignment, he was already deeply indebted to the ISI and putty in their hands.

Levy pours scorn on Sheikh's image of an idealist moved by the plight of Bosnia's Muslims and says the weak minded brown Englishman was easily exploited by trained Pakistani secret service professionals.