KARACHI: The Sindh government has shifted the principal suspect in the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl from a death cell to a newly-built facility inside the prison.
In January, a three-judge panel quashed 18-year-old murder convictions against four suspects, including British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. However, kidnapping convictions were left in place, but the other four men were ordered freed as they had already served out sentences for the kidnapping charges.
Subsequently, on February 2, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Sindh government to remove Sheikh from his death cell in the Karachi Central Prison and transfer to a government safe house as a stepping stone to his full release.
A notification from the Sindh Home Department issued Saturday said all five suspects “are to be shifted to the newly constricted Rooms for the meeting of spouses with Prisoners situated outside of the main prison and within the boundary of Central Prison Karachi.”
However, “no internet, telephone and for that matter any device/means of communicating with [the] outside world is to be provided,” it added.
In line with the Supreme Court’s decision, the notification also directed to ensure complete security of the rest house and allowed Sheikh’s family access to him between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm [GMT+5].
Pearl, 38, was abducted on January 23, 2002, in Karachi and beheaded the next month, reportedly by Al-Qaeda.
Prior to his kidnapping, the journalist had been investigating the link between reportedly Pakistan-based militants and Richard Reid, the notorious “Shoe Bomber” who attempted to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
In July 2002, following the hearings, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Hyderabad had sentenced to death Sheikh and life term to other co-accused. Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in Karachi in which he was kidnapped.
However, all four convicts had moved SHC in 2002 challenging their convictions.
In his autobiography, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, former president Pervaiz Musharraf had claimed that Sheikh, a student at the London School of Economics (reports suggest he did not graduate), was hired by MI6 to engage in “jihadi operations”, adding that “at some point, he probably became a rogue or a double agent”.
