Image Source : ANI Pak SC orders launch of prime suspect in American journalist Daniel Pearl’s homicide
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the discharge of British-born al-Qaeda militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime accused within the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 in Karachi. The apex court docket dismissed the Sindh provincial authorities’s enchantment in opposition to the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) determination to overturn the conviction of Sheikh for the beheading of Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.
According to the quick verdict, a three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam additionally directed to launch the suspect. One member of the bench opposed the choice.
Pearl’s homicide befell three years after Sheikh, together with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was launched by India in 1999 and given secure passage to Afghanistan in alternate for the practically 150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814. He was serving a jail time period in India for kidnappings of Western vacationers within the nation.
Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded whereas he was in Pakistan investigating a narrative in 2002 on the hyperlinks between the nation’s highly effective spy company ISI and al-Qaeda.
In April 2020, the SHC had overturned the loss of life sentence of Omer Sheikh and sentenced him to seven years in jail and acquitted three different accused — Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib — who have been earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court docket (ATC).
After the SHC verdict, the Sindh authorities and household of Daniel Pearl filed petitions within the apex court docket. The Sindh authorities additionally instantly detained the 4 males underneath Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance 1960.
The identical SHC division bench annulled the detention order on December 24 and ordered the Sindh authorities to instantly launch the 4 males. This order elicited an instantaneous response from the US which on December 25 expressed its “deep concerns” over the SHC order.
The US has been mounting strain on Pakistan, demanding justice for Pearl. In December, the US has stated it is able to take custody of Sheikh, asserting that Washington won’t permit him to evade justice.
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