Frantic Hunt for Us Kidnap Victim

Pakistani police searched graveyards in Karachi yesterday in the increasingly desperate hunt for an American journalist kidnapped by suspected Islamic militants.

A message sent by email to US news organisations claimed Daniel Pearl, 38, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal , had been killed and his body dumped in a cemetery in Karachi. 'We have killed Mr Danny,' the email said. 'Now Mr Bush can find his body in the graveyards of Karachi.'

But police said they had found nothing. 'We've searched most of the graveyards in the city throughout the night but nothing was found,' a police officer said. 'We cannot ignore any threat or information, even if it's a hoax.' In earlier emails his kidnappers had threatened to kill Pearl if their demands for better treatment for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were not met.

A second conflicting message came in a call to the US embassy in Pakistan late on Friday when a man said he would be released if a $2 million ransom was paid.

The Wall Street Journal said it believed Pearl was still alive: 'Based on reports from Pakistan we now believe that both of the messages received yesterday about Danny were false. We continue to believe that Danny is alive.'

Investigators in Pakistan have little clue who may be holding Pearl. Abdul Sattar, the Foreign Minister, has suggested there may be an Indian connection to the case, a claim that New Delhi promptly dismissed.

Pearl was abducted nearly two weeks ago in Karachi as he researched a story about al-Qaeda links in Pakistan. He was trying to meet Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, the head of the Islamic extremist group Jamaat al-Fuqra, which was founded in the US more than 20 years ago.

Gilani was arrested last week and is being questioned in Pakistan. Government officials last night said there were 'several leads' in the case but there still appeared to be little good intelligence.