KARACHI (REUTERS) — A videotape of the murder of kidnapped U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl shows his neck being slashed by a sharp instrument, a Pakistani source close to the abduction investigation said Friday.
The source, who did not wish to be identified, said the video was short and showed Pearl as well as the hands of two or three people in the video frame.
“The scene that apparently confirmed the murder of Pearl was when one person’s hand cut the U.S. reporter’s neck with a sharp tool,” the source said.
Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, 38, disappeared in Karachi Jan. 23 as he tried to make contact with Islamic radical groups and investigate possible links between alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid and Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network.
The group that claimed to hold Pearl, calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused him of being a spy — first for the CIA, then for Israeli intelligence — and said it was protesting against U.S. treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners.