KARACHI- An expert in forensic medicine who arrived here from Lahore on Monday took samples for conducting DNA test for identification, from the remains of the decomposed body, which, police believed, was that of the slain Wall Street Journal correspondent, Daniel Pearl, recovered on Friday from a nursery in Gulshan-e-Maymar.
Sources said the expert, who is working with Institute of Molecular Biology of the Punjab University, reached Karachi from Lahore in the early hours of Monday. He was taken to the Edhi mortuary where the remains of the body had been kept for taking samples. Heavy contingents of police and rangers escorted the vehicle of the forensic expert whose name could not be known.
Sources said he spent about an hour at the Edhi morgue, which was surrounded by police and paramilitary forces. The samples include hair, tooth, bones, and other particles. However, it is learnt that in Pakistan the facility for conducting DNA tests is only available at two centres, namely, the Pakistan Armed Forces Institute of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, and the National Institute of Bio-Medics, Faisalabad, but so far none of the Pakistani official have approached these institutes.
Sources said that it was still unclear as to how much time the DNA test would take. They feared that the samples would have to be sent abroad for expert opinion. Sources said that the DNA test of then Chief of Army Staff General Asif Nawaz and Mir Murtaza Bhutto brother of former premier Benazir Bhutto were conducted in Britain and not in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, one of the doctors who performed the post-mortem of the recovered decomposed body said that someone had chopped Pearl’s head off with a sharp- edged weapon and then hacked his body to pieces. The laboratory tests of the samples of soil and mud of the grave from where the body was recovered revealed that the person was buried between January 29 and 30.
“These discoveries indicated that the body was that of Daniel Pearl but we have to wait for DNA test results for official confirmation”, a senior police officer said. Meanwhile, police so far failed to trace the owner of said nursery in Gadap Town from where the decomposed body was recovered. “We are trying our best for establishing the ownership of that place and we would inform media about any development”, a Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) of Investigation-II who is associated with the investigation told sources.
Source: The News
Date:5/21/2002
