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DNA Tests On Remains Suspected To Be Pearl’s
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Pearl grave |
KARACHI, May 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistani authorities Sunday launched DNA tests on samples taken from a dismembered body found on the outskirts of this port city which they believe are the remains of murdered U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl.
"We are sending samples to Lahore for DNA testing today," a police investigator told Agence France-Presse (AFP), saying they included teeth, hair, bones and samples of bloodstains taken from a hut where Pearl was believed to have been killed.
"The opinion of the experts who will conduct the DNA tests will be final for us," said the investigator, adding that the laboratory in the eastern city of Lahore specializes in the high-tech procedure.
Pakistani authorities found the decapitated and dismembered body Friday buried on a vacant plot of land near the blood-stained hut where he was apparently murdered after being abducted on January 23.
A video of Pearl being beheaded was sent to the U.S. consulate in Karachi in February, an aired last week by CBS, after the reporter went missing while reporting in the area.
The investigator said police had questioned a man who used to own the desolate plot in an area notorious as a criminal haunt.
The owner, Maulana Tayyab, said he had sold the property some eight years ago but did not recall the name of the buyer. He promised to provide police with papers relating to the sale, the investigator said.
On Saturday U.S. broadcaster CNN cited U.S. State Department sources as saying that initial forensic tests had confirmed that the remains were those of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter.
The network reported that one final genetic test would be conducted to confirm the identity.
But State Department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz later declined to confirm the reports, saying it was "obviously a very sensitive matter."
Prokopowicz said forensic experts were on their way to study the remains, especially to look at the teeth structure, and "we cannot say how long it will take."
U.S. officials are "in close contact with Pakistani law enforcement officials," as well as with Pearl's family, she said.
However, Pakistani police have said they are increasingly convinced of the identity of the remains, and that the DNA testing is merely a formality.
Police sources said the body had been dug up from a grave four to five feet deep near a roughly-built hut which "resembles closely what was shown on the pictures sent by e-mails showing Pearl in captivity".
They also recovered items that could be seen in the pictures taken by the kidnappers.
"A beheaded body with signs of wounds, the hair, car seat, blue shirt all indicate it is Pearl's remains and the DNA test is only a requirement for legal formalities," another senior police investigator told AFP over the weekend.
The closed-door trial of four men accused of kidnapping and murdering Pearl is taking place in a jail in Hyderabad, 100 miles north of here.
The four defendants are accused of sending e-mails showing the reporter in captivity as well as sending the videotape of his execution to the American consulate.
The accused, including suspected ringleader and British-born Sheikh Omar, deny charges of murder, kidnapping and terrorist activities. If convicted they could be executed.
Another seven suspects are still on the run.
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