ISLAMABAD- A senior Pakistani investigator said on Friday that DNA tests had confirmed that a decapitated body found in a shallow grave in Karachi in May was that of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl.

US and Pakistani officials would not confirm the result, though police have long believed the torso, severed head and other body parts found in a nursery garden on the outskirts of Karachi were those of the Wall Street Journal reporter. “The results have come, it is Daniel’s body,” the investigator told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Pakistani police had sent off DNA samples to the United States for tests. A spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad, John Kincannon, said the DNA analysis had been completed and sent back to American law enforcement officers in Pakistan, but had not yet been handed over to the Pakistani police. “We are not able to confirm yet that they are the remains of Daniel Pearl,” he said.

Karachi’s police chief Asad Jehangir and provincial Home Secretary Brigadier Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh both denied having received the results of the tests. Pearl, 38, was researching a story on militancy against the background of the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan when he was kidnapped in Karachi on January 23. A videotape later emerged showing he had been killed.

British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death on Monday for masterminding Pearl’s kidnap and murder while three accomplices were given life in jail. All four have appealed against their convictions.
Source: The News
Date:7/20/2002