Body parts believed to be of murdered US reporter

Clues found in nearby hut are linked to Daniel Pearl

Police in Karachi said yesterday they believed a body found buried in a field on the outskirts of the Pakistani city was almost certainly that of Daniel Pearl, the missing Wall Street Journal reporter.

Investigators discovered a small shed nearby where they believe Pearl, 38, was held before being killed earlier this year. Police said DNA tests on the dismembered body would confirm identification.

But there were already several indications that the body was that of the American journalist who was kidnapped on January 23 in Karachi as he researched al-Qaida's links in Pakistan. A gruesome video handed to US officials a month later showed the reporter being decapitated.

Buried in a shallow grave, the body was found in several pieces next to a severed head. The jacket of a tracksuit Pearl was wearing when photographed by his kidnappers was also found in the grave.

"The initial reports are that the police are quite sure that it is the body of Daniel Pearl," said Major-General Rashid Qureshi, Pakistan's top military spokesman.

A tip-off on Thursday night led police to the body, which was buried in a compound at Gadap, about 30 miles north of Karachi. Inside the small hut discovered near the grave were buttons from a shirt Pearl was wearing in the photographs sent by his kidnappers along with their list of demands. The inside wall of the hut also resembled the background in the photos, police said.

"It looks like the room where he was kept, from the photographs. It was totally empty," said Jamil Yusuf, head of the citizens-police liaison committee in Karachi. He said the tip-off about the grave came from an informer in the militant underground.

Near to the scene was a large Islamic seminary, called Jamia Rashidia, which was founded by a religious cleric who also began the Al-Rashid Trust, an Islamic charity listed by the US as a terrorist organisation after September 11. Mr Yusuf said there was no link yet between the group and Pearl's kidnap.

Four people, including British-born Islamist militant Omar Saeed Sheikh are on trial for kidnap and murder at an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad. Prosecutors and police officers have admitted that the evidence against Mr Sheikh is largely circumstantial and investigators have spent weeks trying to trace Pearl's body in the hope it will strengthen their case.