Karachi, Feb. 22 :    Karachi, Feb. 22:  Tape handed to another reporter Daniel Pearl's executioners slit his throat, filmed their act and delivered the videotape. Nearly a month after the American journalist was kidnapped in Pakistan, it was confirmed early this morning that he was dead. The video was handed over on Wednesday or Thursday to the Karachi-based Pakistani reporter of a New York newspaper who had to spend another 24 hours to convince US authorities that they should view it. A Pakistan government official said Pearl's neck and throat were slit. His last words uttered on camera were that he was a Jew and his father was a Jew. Pakistani interior minister Moinuddin Haider said the tape was made available to the US consul-general in Karachi and to US and Pakistani investigators who viewed it, confirming at 2 am today that the person being killed on camera was Pearl. A representative of The Wall Street Journal, for which Pearl was working out of Mumbai as the South Asian bureau chief, also saw the tape. Only when the editor confirmed that the figure on the tape was Pearl was news of his death released. 'We are in touch with the reporter in Karachi to find out who handed over this tape to him,' Haider said. Pakistani police were searching for up to four more suspects. The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, which probes kidnappings in Karachi, said the police had detained over half the group suspected to be involved in the crime. General Pervez Musharraf denounced the murder as gruesome and ordered a nationwide hunt for suspects still at large. President George W. Bush, speaking during a visit to China, called the killing a 'criminal, barbaric' act. Pearl's family said it was a 'senseless murder' that had silenced 'a gentle soul'. Musharraf called Bush to express his condolences. 'The two Presidents agreed that the perpetrators of this barbaric act can neither be friend of Islam nor of Pakistan,' Haider said. The interior minister refused to disclose the identity of the reporter who was given the tape, which showed Pearl's neck being cut by a sharp instrument. 'He knows and he has given a description of three persons, their ages and their build and we are trying to establish that these are the very persons we are looking for,' Haider added. Pearl's body has not been found and it is unclear exactly when and where he was executed. The US consul-general in Karachi told Pearl's wife the news in person and informed his family in the US. Mariane Pearl, who was in Karachi, is seven months pregnant with their first child, a son. Riffat Hussein, a defence and strategic studies analyst at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, said the sophistication of the kidnapping pointed to the possible involvement of Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network. 'If you look at the character of this case - the methodology that was used, the use of e-mail, and videotape - it suggests it may have some very significant al Qaida links,' Hussein said. 'The scene that apparently confirmed the murder of Pearl was when one person's hand cut the US reporter's neck with a sharp tool,' a Pakistani source said, quoting someone who had seen the tape. The Pakistani reporter, he said, tried to contact the US consulate in Karachi over phone and left a number of messages, which were answered only after crosschecks by consulate officials. This took 24 hours. A Pakistani official, who has not seen the tape himself but has been briefed on its contents, said he had been told it contained 'gruesome scenes'. 'I have also been told that the last words uttered by Pearl were: 'Yes, I am a Jew and my father is a Jew'.' Pearl disappeared in Karachi on January 23 as he tried to contact Islamic radical groups and investigate possible links between alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid and the al Qaida network. The group claiming 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. The outfit said it was protesting against US treatment of Taliban and al Qaida prisoners. Police arrested British-born militant Omar Sheikh on February 12, who said in court two days later that Pearl was dead. The Wall Street Journal publisher Peter Kann and managing editor Paul Steiger said: 'We are heartbroken. His murder is an act of barbarism that makes a mockery of everything Danny's kidnappers claimed to believe in.' Bush said the murder would only hurt the cause of his captors. 'Those who would threaten Americans, those who would engage in criminal, barbaric acts, need to know that these crimes only hurt their cause and only deepen the resolve of the United States of America to rid the world of these agents of terror.' 'From this professionally-executed act of terror, we can see that stronger action is required against these criminals and terrorists,' Haider said. Pearl's wife said the kidnappers may have taken his life but failed to take his spirit. 'Danny is my life. They may have taken my life, but they did not take my spirit,' Mariane said in a statement.