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Police scour graveyards as fate of kidnapped journalist still unclear

KARACHI, Feb 2 (AFP) - Pakistani police searched graveyards overnight for kidnapped US journalist Daniel Pearl amid conflicting reports of his fate, following an e-mail claiming he was dead and a separate phone call demanding a ransom for his release.

"We have not slept all Friday night, searching one graveyard after another after media reports that the missing journalist's body could be found in some graveyard," Karachi police officer Manzoor Mughal said Saturday.

A shadowy group claiming to hold the Wall Street Journal reporter had threatened to kill him by Friday unless the United States freed Pakistani prisoners held at its naval base in Cuba and improved the treatment of others in detention there.

An e-mail sent to the CNN network on Friday claimed Pearl, 38, had been killed and his body dumped in a graveyard.

But in a conflicting message, callers to the US embassy in Islamabad demanded a two million dollar ransom plus the release of the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan from US custody.

Hundreds of Karachi police have been ordered to scour the southern city for signs of Pearl following reports of the e-mail, but Mughal said they were sceptical of its authenticity.

"It now appears that the last e-mail was fake as firstly, it was not sent to the Pakistani news organisations, which had been the pattern, and secondly, the kidnappers have not sent a photograph of the dead person," he said.

Another police investigator said they were looking into the ransom demands.

"We are taking everything seriously and have found some leads on this call," he said on condition of anonymity.

A US embassy spokesman in Islamabad said Saturday the reporter's fate "remained unclear" after the ransom call to the embassy late Friday, hours after an earlier deadline for Pearl's execution had expired.

"We have people looking into that, trying to confirm it," he said when asked if the call came from the kidnappers.

The ransom demand carried a 36-hour deadline for delivery of the money, and the release of the Taliban's former ambassador, Abdul Salam Zaeef, another police officer told AFP.

"We are taking this call as seriously as the (previous) e-mails," the officer said, adding there was no reason to believe the telephone call was not genuine.

US Secretary of States Colin Powell has said there would be no negotiations with the kidnappers, who have identified themselves as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.

Pearl disappeared in Karachi 10 days ago after telling his wife he was going to interview Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, leader of the Muslim militant organization Tanzeem-ul-Fuqrahi, for a story on Islamic extremism.

Gilani has been held and questioned by police since Wednesday, but denies any knowledge of Pearl's abduction. Another Pakistani man police had wanted to interview died in mysterious circumstances before they could reach him.

The US Justice Department has been scrutinizing the message e-mailed to CNN, spokesman Bryan Sierra said in Washington.

"We have received a copy of that e-mail and we are studying it to determine if it's real or not," said Sierra,

Neither the White House nor the Wall Street Journal were able to confirm whether Pearl had been killed.

President George W. Bush said the United States was working with the Pakistani government to chase all leads.

"For example, we're trying to follow the trail of the e-mails that have been sent with the sole purpose of saving this man, of finding him and rescuing him.

"We've been in touch with The Wall Street Journal and, obviously, we're deeply concerned as is the Pakistani government, and we will continue to do everything we can to rescue him."

The Journal said it held hope the e-mailed claims were false.

"We have seen the latest reports and we remain hopeful that they are not true," said a statement from the paper.

Previous e-mails to Pakistani newspapers contained photographs of Pearl in captivity, some with a gun pointed at his head.

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