Police uncertain about identity of recovered body | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Police uncertain about identity of recovered body

KARACHI- Police on Saturday were not sure whether the decapitated body, recovered three days ago from a plot in Gulshan-e-Maymar, was that of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

The Gulzar-e-Hijri Police Station has lodged an First Information Report (FIR) against unknown accused regarding recovery of the body of an ‘unidentified person’ in 10 pieces from a nursery in Ahsanabad area.

However, the contents of the FIR could not be ascertained because the police after registering the case sealed it off. Due to evidences, the police believed that the unidentified body was of US journalist Daniel Pearl but there was no official confirmation yet.

A police spokesman said that no report of DNA test, relating to the identity of the body had been received. He added when the information regarding the identity of the said body was received, the press would be informed.

An FBI official along with Pakistani security personnel visited the site, where the body was recovered, and spent over an hour there, sources said and added that the official went in all the rooms and took some samples from the spot.

The sources said that a law-enforcement agency nabbed three suspects Tauheed, Ramzan and Haider, who informed the investigators about a place where they had buried the corpse of Daniel Pearl, had very strong connections with the suicide bomber.

They said that a team of investigators, not associated with the police, was carrying out investigation with these suspects. On their information, several places had been raided for the arrest of two absconders Amjad Hussain Farooqi alias Haider Farooqi and Imtiaz Siddiqui, who were supposed to be the main figures behind the Pearl’s murder and also the suicide bombing case, the sources said.

The sources added that it was decided in a high-level meeting that police would not book these three accused in Pearl case as the prosecutors feel that their inclusion would destroy the whole case against four under trial prisoners Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, Shaikh Adil, Salman Saqib and Fahad Nasim.

These suspects would be booked in suicide bombing case within a couple of days, sources said, adding that the suspects had already confessed they were involved in suicide car bomb blast outside the Sheraton Hotel.

The US State Department on Saturday declined to confirm whether a decapitated body discovered in a shallow grave outside Karachi is that of late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

“We are not confirming anything,” said State Department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz. “Obviously this is a very sensitive matter. We know that the Pakistanis have recovered the remains of what they believe may be those of … Daniel Pearl,” she said. Prokopowicz added that 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.”

US officials are “in close contact with the Pakistani law-enforcement officials,” as well as with Pearl’s family, she said. CNN cited US State Department sources as saying that initial forensic tests had confirmed that the remains were those of Pearl.

Source: The News
Date:5/19/2002