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CNN Saturday Morning News

Claims Pearl Has Been Killed Have Not Been Substantiated

Aired February 02, 2002 - 08:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with the case of the kidnapped American journalist. CNN's Ash-Har Quaraishi is in Karachi, Pakistan, where Daniel Pearl was last seen about a week and a half ago. What is the latest?

ASH-HAR QUARAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, authorities here in the port city of Karachi continue in this investigation. They're still looking into two messages received late last night, both claiming to be from the kidnappers of Daniel Pearl. One was received in e-mail form. That e-mail indicated that the kidnappers say that they had killed Daniel Pearl, and that they had dropped his body in one of the graveyards in Karachi.

Now police took that e-mail very seriously. They deployed officers and have been searching throughout the evening, throughout the night, and early until today looking for any sign that Daniel Pearl may have been actually deposited in one of these graveyards.

So far, they say they have not seen any evidence that that is true, but they are still working on the assumption that anything that comes in, especially this e-mail, may possibly lead to some more information about Daniel.

The other message received via phone at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, a totally different message there, claiming that they had extended the length of time they were going to give for the demands to be me by 36 hours, asking for $2 million this time, and also the release of former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef.

Now police at this point say that they have not been able to verify either of these messages, but they are investigating them and they are continuing to look into other possible leads and other probes. And at this point, they're not willing to rule out anything -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: OK, thank you very much, appreciate that.

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