Islamabad, Dec 20 (IANS) The Pakistan Supreme Court announced that a decision will be taken on a letter in which Omar Sheikh, the key accused in the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl, revealed that the real culprit behind the kidnapping and beheading of the American journalist was a Karachi terrorist.
According to Faisal Siddiqui, the counsel of Pearl’s parents, Sheikh submitted the hand-written letter to the Sindh High Court on July 19, 2019, reports The Express Tribune.
In the letter, Sheikh claimed that he was “a scapegoat” arrested on the US “pressure”, and that the real culprit was the Karachi militant, Attaur Rehman.
The letter was produced during a hearing of the appeals against the acquittal of the four accused in the Pearl murder case.
Producing the letter in the court on Saturday, Siddiqui contended that the three-judge special Supreme Court bench led by Justice Mushir Alam must consider it.
However, the judges will decide on the next date of hearing on January 4 whether they will consider Sheikh’s letter or not.
Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 while doing research on religious extremism.
Later a graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate after a month of his abduction.
Subsequently Sheikh was arrested and sentenced to death by the trial court.
–IANS
ksk/