Pakistani police have found a grave where they believe murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl is buried, the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency said on Friday. Police were understood to have arrested three people following the find, it said. (Read photo caption)
The APP report from the southern port city of Karachi came after CNN, quoting unidentified government and police officials, reported that the police there had found a body they believed was of the Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl.

But amid conflicting reports about the matter, Karachi's police chief told Reuters he was unaware of any such body being found.

Asked about the CNN report, police Deputy Inspector General Asad Jahangir told Reuters: "I have no such knowledge. Had this happened, it should have been in my knowledge."

APP said senior police officials were in a high level meeting that was still in progress in the early hours of Friday and that there was no confirmation from them.

Pearl, who had been Wall Street Journal's Bombay-based South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped in Karachi on January 23 while working on stories about Islamic militants.

A gruesome three-minute video was delivered to U.S. officials in Karachi a month later showing Pearl's brutal death.

At a Pakistani court holding a closed-door trial of four men for Pearl's kidnap and murder, prosecution and defense lawyers cross-examined two U.S. FBI agents on Thursday on key e-mails and video evidence in the case.

The FBI cooperated closely with Pakistani investigators after Pearl's abduction.

PHOTO CAPTION

Police in the Pakistani port city of Karachi have found a grave where they believe murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl is buried, the official APP news agency reported early May 17, 2002. Pearl appears in an undated photo. (Wall Street Journal via Reuters)