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Daniel Pearl murder convict attempts suicide in Pakistan
KARACHI: A British-Pakistani man convicted of the killing of US reporter Daniel Pearl has attempted to commit suicide in a Pakistani prison, an official said Saturday.
“Omar Sheikh, a British-Pakistani, who is serving life imprisonment in Hyderabad prison, tried to hang himself with the exhaust of the prison cell late Friday,” senior police official Akram Naeem told AFP.
Pearl was working for the Wall Street Journal when he was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002.
British-born extremist Omar was arrested with three others and convicted in June 2002 of Pearl's murder by an anti-terror court.
Akram said Saturday that security officials saw Omar and rescued him quickly.
“His condition is stable now and a case has been filed against him in the local police station,” he added.
In Pakistan prisoners who attempt to commit suicide can face additional punishment.
Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002, while researching a story about Islamist militants.
A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month later.
In January 2011, a report released by the Pearl project at Georgetown University following an investigation into his death made chilling revelations when it claimed that the wrong men were convicted for Pearl's murder.
The investigation, led by Pearl's friend and former Wall Street Journal colleague Asra Nomani and a Georgetown University professor, claimed the reporter was murdered by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged brains behind the September 11 2001 attacks, not Omar Sheikh.
Pearl's body was found four months after he disappeared, cut into a dozen pieces, the head severed, the upper torso still clad in a light blue track suit that his kidnappers made him wear, the report said.
Self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and is being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, awaiting trial by a US military tribunal.
Comments (11) Closed
Wish this attempt had been successful.
He is too smart to commit suicide, there is more to this story.
Since findings of a relevant committee suggest that a wrong man has been convicted someone should wake up and review.Why not the justice people who have been taking SUO MoTO action even in traffic and prices cases.It is not uncommon for Pakistan Police to perform such miracles.They can force admission to undone crimes.They are masters of KHANAPURY.Let us hope someone with conscience and authority will do this man justice.
It is highly possible that Daniel Pearl's murderer Omar Sheikh will soon set free after the 'successful peace talk' between Tehrek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Government of Pakistan (GOP).
He killed Daniel Pearl brutally. Now he deserves to be be kept alive under torture. There was no justification to kill him in a brutal way. He can kill him by shooting but beheading cannot be justified in any way. He claimed to be a good Muslim by saying that Daniel Pearl was beheaded by my blessed hand now he is trying to suicide.
This is all a drama to delay and deny hanging.
I wont be surprised if the actual culprit is someone else. After all, we know our police and the level of its efficiency. And how they succumb to pressure of completing a high profile investigation, resulting in bogus arrests and staged raids.
All one can hope is that Omar Shiekh is the real criminal here and if not then may the real culprits get severe punishment one day along with those responsible for the wrong doing against wrongly captured people.
That is really good News for this criminal who killed a man who trusted him in the first instance after being tricked in to getting hold of him. .This scum is a shame on this country and the sooner this garabage disappears, the better for the world. Daniel Please excuse us for this shameful deed.
@usman civil 01-08-2013: another gruesome angle of this story is that Daniel Pearl came to Pakistan trusting this guy and he for one handed Daniel over to the extremist element. He deserves to spend rest of his life in jail.
I visited dawn site for the first time when news about Daniel Perl's kidnapping came out, I was regular reader of WSJ at the time.. Time just flies by, this was in 2002. Things only got much worse since then in Pakistan however recent developments of public outrage against TTP is definitely a very positive sign IMO towards building a new Pakistan.
Police rescued him quickly - what for? Instead police would have helped him to complete his plan so that the burden of feeding him would have been avoided.