Daniel Pearl

Incident Description: Abducted; beheaded

On January 23, 2002, the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped from Karachi where he was researching a story about religious extremists in the city. According to Dawn, Pearl told his wife that he was going to interview Pir Mubarak Shah Gilani. However, he did not return. Nearly a month later, on February 21, a video showing his decapitation was sent to the US consulate in Karachi.

“On Feb 21, around 11pm, a video tape was received. The recorded video contained scenes showing Pearl in captivity and scenes of his murder by the kidnappers. The tape appears to be correct,” a spokesman for the Sindh home department was quoted as saying. As per a Dawn report, Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh was named by police as a key suspect and later arrested in Lahore.

Journalists, politicians and civic leaders, including the then President Pervez Musharraf, had condemned the death of Pearl. President Pervez Musharraf, on February 22, expressed his deep grief at the murder. In a condolence message, President Musharraf offered his heartfelt condolences to Pearl’s wife, his family and the editors and journalists of the Wall Street Journal. The president said that his wife joined him in sharing the grief of Mrs.

Daniel Pearl. He had directed the government of Sindh and other national security agencies to apprehend each and every member of the gang of terrorists involved in this gruesome murder. President Musharraf said that such acts of terrorism “were gruesome experiences for the society, but would not deter him, his government and the people of Pakistan from acting with all their strength against terrorists and in fighting this menace together with the international community.”

In 2002, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death. According to Dawn, his three accomplices — Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saquib and Shaikh Mohammad Adil — were given life terms. On April 2, 2020, the Sindh High Court (SHC) overturned the death penalty handed to the main accused, Sheikh, in Pearl's murder case. The high court also set aside the life terms handed down to three co-accused, Dawn reported.

The United States condemned the decision. In a tweet, Chief US diplomat for South Asian affairs, Alice Wells, said that overturning the conviction of those responsible for Pearl’s murder was “an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere”. They also welcomed Pakistan’s decision to appeal the verdict. A day after the acquittal, all the accused in the case were rearrested.

On April 22, the Sindh government challenged the SHC’s decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Pearl’s parents also appealed the Supreme Court to reverse the acquittal. On September 28, the Supreme Court began hearing the appeals and stopped the Sindh government from releasing the main accused, Dawn.com reported.