Pakistan said today the videotape of the killing of kidnapped Wall Street Journalreporter Daniel Pearl was too gruesome for public release.
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Mr Daniel Pearl
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It also stepped up security at all US diplomatic missions and businesses, saying it could not rule out attacks following the death of Mr Pearl, whose body police fear they may never find.
A senior government official said President Pervez Musharraf's military administration had discussed releasing the tape but decided it was too barbaric to air.
The official said the videotape, sent by the radical Islamic gang suspected of kidnapping Mr Pearl to a newspaper worker who handed it to authorities, showed the reporter's severed head in its last frame.
Earlier parts of the brief tape showed his throat being cut from behind while he was still talking to the camera.
"It was discussed at the most senior level whether to release this video to television channels, but finally it was decided that even foreign television channels would not be able to show such gruesome scenes," the official said.
Mr Pearl, 38, disappeared in Karachi as he tried to contact Islamic radical groups and investigate possible links between alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid and the al Qaeda network.
The group claiming to hold Mr Pearl called itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty and accused the American of being a spy - first for the CIA, then for Israeli intelligence.
In a national television address last night, President Musharraf said all resources were being thrown into the hunt for the reporter's killers and vowed no quarter for Islamic extremists even if they were not involved in the abduction.