KARACHI: An Anti-Terrorism court adjourned on Saturday the hearing of the trial against Mohammad Hashim alias Arif, one of the five proclaimed offenders who were arrested by the police in the kidnapping and killing conspiracy case of US journalist Daniel Pearl. The matter will be next taken up on March 18.The accused was not produced before the court the Sindh Home Department has yet to decide whether the trial will be conducted inside the jail or in court. Besides, the R&P of the case was sent to the Sindh High Court where the appeals of the main accused Ahmed Omer Sheikh and other co-accused against the conviction were pending.
Daniel Pearl, a US national and South Asian region Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped on January 23, 2002 from Karachi and later beheaded by his captors upon failure to fulfill their demands. The main accused Ahmed Omer Sheikh was sentenced to death on charges of kidnapping and killing the US journalist, and his three accomplices Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a fine of Rs 500,000 each by a Hyderabad ATC on July 15, 2002.
| Omar Saeed Sheikh still hasn't had his sentence carried out. The guys who got life will likely have their sentences quietly commuted at some point in the future, like an Eid holiday. I think I'll go take a shower now. |