Police investigating the killing of
Daniel Pearl have said they are now "quite sure" the body they have found
in southern Karachi is that of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter.
Although no formal identification has yet been made, police officials
said hair samples and a number of other clues found had strengthened their
belief that the body was Pearl.
The body has been taken away for DNA testing.
Investigators were today searching a single-room shed near where the
body was discovered and where they believe Pearl was held for "two or
three days" before being killed.
Mansour Mughal, the chief investigator into Pearl's disappearance, told
the Associated Press that police had found a chair like that seen in
photographs sent to news agencies by Pearl's kidnappers.
He said the room also resembled the background shown in the
photographs, and that police searching had found buttons from the shirt
Pearl was shown wearing.
"We think this is the room where Pearl may have been held for two or
three days," Mr Mughal said.
The body was found in 10 pieces, including a severed head, in a shallow
makeshift grave.
Police were led to the body by three new suspects in the kidnapping,
who told them the body was Pearl's.
The American journalist disappeared on January 23 from outside a
restaurant in Karachi, the Sindh provincial capital, while researching
possible links between Pakistani extremists and the alleged shoe bomber
Richard Reid.
Four Islamist radicals have been on trial since April 22 on charges of
murder and kidnapping in the case. They have pleaded innocent.
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