In a bizarre judgment, the Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s murderer Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
Daniel Pearl, a 38-year-old journalist of the Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded in 2002 while he was in Pakistan to investigate a story of terror groups’ links to Al-Qaeda.
Terrorist Omar Sheikh is among the three terrorists India had freed in 1999 in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814.
The Ministry of External Affairs termed the decision to release Sheikh as a “travesty of justice”.
“It is a travesty of justice not to find Omar Saeed guilty of any charges in this heinous act of terror. Our position on Pakistan taking sustained credible and irreversible action against terrorism and terror funding emanating from territories under its control remains unchanged.” Said MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.
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According to Daily Pakistan, the Sindh High Court(SHC) also ordered putting the names of the accused Sheikh and others in the Exit Control List(ECL).
The ECL empowers the Federal Government to prohibit any person from proceeding abroad. It is also reviewed periodically to assess the need for further retention of a person.
The provincial government had approached the top court against the order of the SHC overturning the conviction of Sheikh.
The accused have been in jail for the last 18 years and the court had ordered the accused to appear as and when the court summons them.
The United States had expressed deep concerns over the SHC ruling to release all the terrorists responsible for killing the journalist.
(With ANI Inputs)