US seeks justice from Pak in Daniel Pearl murder case

Washington/Islamabad, May 4

The US has again prodded Pakistan by seeking justice for murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl, days after his family filed an appeal before the Supreme Court against a verdict by a court in Sindh province which acquitted the prime accused and British-born top al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others in the case.

Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for ‘The Wall Street’ Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the alleged links between the country’s powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.

On April 2, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench overturned the death sentence of 46-year-old al-Qaeda leader Sheikh, who was convicted in the abduction and murder of Pearl in 2002. He has been in jail for the past 18 years.

The court also acquitted his three aides — Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil — serving life sentences in the case. The bench announced the verdict on the appeals filed by the four convicts 18 years ago. — PTI