The young British Islamic militant who confessed to masterminding the abduction and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl has been linked to the gang that killed two Britons in Kashmir seven years ago.

Keith Mangan from Middlesbrough and Paul Wells from Blackburn were kidnapped in an attempt by Islamic militants to get London School of Economics dropout Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and 21 other terror suspects freed from Indian prisons.

Former public schoolboy Saeed, 28, from Wanstead, east London, had been arrested after he organised the kidnapping of three Britons and one American tourist in Kashmir a year earlier.

He had demanded the release of jailed Islamic extremists, but the plot was foiled and the tourists were released unharmed.

Saeed and his accomplices were jailed and in the five years that followed, his comrades made two bloody attempts to win his freedom, Newsweek reported today.

In July 1995 they kidnapped six more Western backpackers in Kashmir, including Mangan, 33, and Wells, 22.

India again refused to negotiate. One hostage, an American, escaped; the headless body of a Norwegian was found six weeks later but the two Britons were never seen again and are assumed murdered.

Under the name al-Faran, a previously obscure militant group, Saeed's followers ultimately succeeded in forcing his release.

In 1999, members of the group hijacked an Indian airliner to Afghanistan. They once again demanded India free Saeed and other extremists. This time officials complied, but only after the hijackers murdered a passenger.

Saeed has already been secretly indicted in the US for the 1994 kidnappings and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington may attempt to extradite him on death penalty charges.

Escorted by dozens of heavily armed policemen, Saeed appeared in court in Karachi today, expecting to be charged with the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

With two other suspects, he was remanded in custody for a further two weeks. In the closed-door hearing, the judge delayed the charges to give police a chance to recover Pearl's body, said chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi.

During the proceedings at a special anti-terrorism court, all three defendants complained that police had forced them to sign blank pieces of paper as part of coerced confessions, said defence lawyer Khawaja Naveed. He said the judge, Shabir Ahmed, ordered the police to stop such methods.

In a court appearance on February 14, Saeed confessed to Pearl's kidnapping. A gruesome video of the reporter's murder was handed over the US authorities last week.

The US government wanted Saeed extradited from Pakistan at least two months before he was implicated in Pearl's murder, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin said in Islamabad today.

Saeed "is a nasty character," Chamberlin said. "He's been involved as a suspect in kidnappings and crimes against American citizens for many years."

The United States and Pakistan do not have an extradition treaty, but Chamberlin said she will raise the issue when she meets Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf tomorrow.

Asked whether Saeed could be extradited without destabilising Musharraf's government, Chamberlin replied: "I think the Pakistani people and the Pakistani government are equally outraged by the brutality of the murder of Danny Pearl."