ISLAMABAD (voa) – Pakistani authorities are seeking four more suspects in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told reporters Friday that investigators know the names and identity of the suspects.
Investigators say they are using descriptions of suspects provided by a Pakistani journalist who was given a videotape of the slaying. The journalist passed on the tape to Pakistani authorities, who in turn gave it to the U.S. consulate at Karachi.
Pakistani officials say the tape shows Mr. Pearl reading a statement that both he and his father are Jewish.. Then a hand appears with a sharp tool and slices his throat.
Mr. Pearl was kidnapped last month in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. It is not known when and where he was executed and his body has not been found.
Pakistani authorities already have a Muslim militant leader known as Sheikh Omar and several other suspects in custody.
The kidnappers had demanded the release of all Pakistani prisoners who have been detained at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Washington refused to negotiate with the terrorists.
President Bush said Mr. Pearl’s killing was “an act of barbarism that made all Americans sad and angry.” Speaking in Beijing early Friday, the president said the attack on Mr. Pearl will only deepen U.S. resolve to rid the world of all terrorists.
In Islamabad, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf vowed to hunt down every member of the gang that kidnapped the reporter. He said the killers have only given a bad name to Pakistan but also to Islam.
Mr. Pearl’s parents and sisters issued a statement from their Los Angeles home, saying they had clung to the hope that no human being could harm such a gentle soul. His pregnant wife, Mariane, has been in Pakistan pleading for the abductors to show mercy.
U.S. officials had hoped as late as last week that Mr. Pearl was still alive after receiving conflicting statements from one of the suspected kidnappers who was arrested by Pakistani police.
