Traveler: Pearl's Kidnapper Almost Got Me

L O N D O N , Feb. 28 -- Rhys Partridge is one of three British tourists who, with an American, were kidnapped in 1994 by Sheik Omar Saeed, the main suspect in the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl. They spent several weeks in captivity before Indian police freed them.

ABCNEWS' John Quinones spoke to Partridge about his ordeal, the nature of his relationship with Sheik, and if he thought Sheik would ever change. The following is an edited transcript of the interview.

QUINONES: Can you tell us how and where you met Sheik, Omar Sheik.

PARTRIDGE: Well, I first met him in Paharganj, New Delhi, over, over a few coffees on one of the rooftop, rooftop restaurants there. We got to know each other, played a few games of chess. That was — that was where I initially got to know the guy.

QUINONES: How is that you met him? He just came up to you?

PARTRIDGE: No, I actually approached him. When you're traveling in a new country, you always want to check out what's going on. The travelers are the best people to talk to, to pick up any information on what — where to go, what places are safe, what places aren't. Ironically, he probably wasn't the best guy to ask on that matter.

QUINONES: What did he call himself?

PARTRIDGE: Rohit — Rohit Sharma. That was his alias at the time.

QUINONES: And how would you describe him?

PARTRIDGE: I think my description probably wouldn't be appropriate because I'm not particularly well-disposed [toward] the guy, but he was, on first appearance, he seemed a very amiable chap. He had a very well-bred English accent, obviously, of public school origin, and not, not an [inaudible] to me.

So you don't really imagine that type of person to be presenting threats. Obviously, when you're traveling, you seem very rich by, by the local standards, any kind of Westerner, and that can often open you up as a bit of a target to people [inaudible].

QUINONES: Was he friendly, charismatic?

PARTRIDGE: He was a little bit awkward, but friendly enough. He wasn't, he wasn't too used to socializing with people, I don't think.

QUINONES: And what did he offer to do for you?

PARTRIDGE: Well, he came up with this cock-and-bull story that he was, he was very proud of, of a very small village in, somewhere in Madhya Pradesh, that his uncle owned, and he was returning back there. And that was the pretext that he used to lure me, lure me away from New Delhi in that respect. [Inaudible.]

QUINONES: Where did he say he was from?

PARTRIDGE: Well, it was obvious he was from the U.K. He made no pretense there.

QUINONES: He told you he was a politics graduate from the London School of Economics?

PARTRIDGE: He mentioned the LSE, and interestingly one of the people in our group, because all the travelers congregate, one of the other people there was actually an LSE graduate, also, and that put him in a bit of a difficult position because he didn't want to give away too much, but they had a fair bit of common ground. It made him a little nervous.

QUINONES: What did he look like? How was he dressed?

PARTRIDGE: He was dressed fairly conservatively. Travelers do get a reputation of being a little bit degenerate.

QUINONES: Yeah.

PARTRIDGE: But he was — he was well dressed, sort of in line with what is expected of the local population, shirt and slacks.

QUINONES: And was he charming?

PARTRIDGE: Well, he was obviously trying to befriend me, so he made attempts to be amiable. I wouldn't say he was a bit comfortable at it, but a lot of people when they're traveling, it's difficult to [inaudible] total strangers and start talking freely with them. So, you know, you always expect a little bit of, a bit of, I guess, nervousness.

He did seem, he did seem a little bit on edge, understandably, with what he was going to do, and, I mean, I picked up on that at the time. I didn't think anything of it. So, I mean, perhaps I can blame my naivete for that, what happened [inaudible].

QUINONES: And the next day you meet again to play chess?

PARTRIDGE: Yeah. We played several games of chess, met up a few times, had several conversations.

QUINONES: And then he tells you that he's inherited a town from his uncle, right?

PARTRIDGE: Yeah, that was about the story, which he thought was very clever, and obviously would be of interest to travelers who wanted to see India, what it really is, but my real motivation was to try and get free lift [inaudible].

QUINONES: So would you say that he lured you into captivity?

PARTRIDGE: Well, I didn't volunteer freely. …

QUINONES: Did you know that in his diary Sheik wrote, and I'm quoting the entry into his diary, he said, "The strongest friendship by far was with Rhys Partridge. We have many common interests like chess, traveling, and writing." Was it a friendship?

PARTRIDGE: Well, I think the most important thing when you're traveling is striking up friendships. That's half the idea of [inaudible], and I certainly make an effort to be, to be friendly towards people, and the best way of doing that is to find any common interests.

And, I mean, there's no way on Earth I'm going to say I saw eye-to-eye with this guy, but there's always things you can find in common with people, and I enjoyed a game of chess, a lot of travelers do, and I enjoy traveling to places abroad. That's something else that's fairly common with a lot of travelers. And, yeah, we had lots of conversations.

He, certainly, I mean, he certainly warmed to me, and we certainly did develop I suppose a relationship is not the word, but especially in the time that I was captured, I had to make an effort to develop an [inaudible] with the guy. So I guess that's true to an extent.

QUINONES: When did you realize you were being kidnapped?

PARTRIDGE: When did I realize I was being kidnapped? When he got me in the house and put a gun to my head, that was a fairly strong clue.

QUINONES: In his diary, Sheik writes that "three of his confederates rushed in brandishing pistols." Can you tell me how you remember those events and your reaction.

PARTRIDGE: Well, that was, that was pretty much how it happened. They, they rushed in with the guns. I didn't, I didn't panic. I didn't really react. I suppose, I suppose the reaction I had was one of disbelief. I mean, how would a normal person react to [inaudible] like that? It's not something that you're really that prepared for, and I think I made a glib remark, [inaudible] if this is a joke, it's a terribly good one. But that was about it, and I just listened to what he had to say.

At that point, obviously, your mind starts racing, and it takes a little while to actually come to terms with what is now reality. It all seemed terribly surreal. It's not an easy thing to deal with being kidnapped, but that's [inaudible].

QUINONES: Yeah. Was the Sheik himself armed?

PARTRIDGE: He did pick up a gun a little bit later on when he was dealing with me. He wasn't holding a gun. His guys with the guns sort of stood back out of reach, which I guess was fairly sensible [inaudible].

QUINONES: So, obviously, his demeanor, the man you knew as Sharma, his demeanor then suddenly changed.