HYDERABAD, Nov 5: All four convicts in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case have appealed to the government to allow them to offer prayers five times a day, including Taraveeh, collectively in the central jail during the holy month of Ramazan.

After meeting his brother in the central jail, Sheikh Aslam, the brother of Sheikh Adil, told newsmen at the local press club on Tuesday that Advocate Khawaja Naveed had submitted a request on Oct 29 on their behalf to Home Sececretary Brig Mukhtar Ahmed.

An application on behalf of Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, Sheikh Adil, Fahad Naseem, and Syed Salman Saqib was given to the lawyer by Sheikh Aslam.

The convicts have also requested the government to order that they be shifted to the Karachi central prison in view of the fact that the hearing of the criminal appeal against their sentence in the case would be heard at the principal seat of the Sindh High Court, said Mr Aslam.

The convicts had submitted their application to the provincial home secretary but no decision had been taken as yet.

He claimed that the additional home secretary, Iqbal Deewan, had asked him to submit another application about the shifting of the convicts to Karachi.

He stated that as far as the question of offering prayers and Taraveeh collectively in the jail was concerned, no decision had been taken as yet.

He charged that the families of the convicts were facing hardships to meet them.

He said that there was a world of difference between the attitude of the central jail administrations of Karachi and Hyderabad.

He alleged that the central jail officials of Hyderabad often misbehaved with the womenfolk and other family members of the convicts.

Mr Aslam pointed out that while the administration was giving one hour for strolling to the other prisoners, the same facility was not being given to convicts in the Daniel Pearl case, which was mandatory under the jail manual.

He claimed that the activities of the convicts were also being monitored through close-circuit television.

He said that the health of Syed Salman Saqib was unsatisfactory as he was still passing blood in his urine.

He said that the Sindh High Court had allowed a constitutional petition filed by Advocate Khwaja Naveed, requesting the court to direct the jail administration to allow offering collective prayers to the accused in the hijacking case involving Nawaz Sharif.

He said that a similar petition would also be filed on behalf of the present convicts.

An Anti-Terrorism Court judge, Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, had sentenced Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh to death and awarded life imprisonment to three co-accused in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case on July 15 following a trial in jail.

SENTENCED The Anti-Terro-rism Court judge, Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to four persons and a fine of Rs50,000 to each accused after they were found guilty of trying to blow up the railway tracks in Tando Adam in December 2001.

The convicts included Cheetan Bajeer, Mohammad Saleh Memon, Ali Nawaz Leghari, and Abdul Ghani Makrani.

Advocate Noor Mohammad Memon represented Mohammad Saleh Memon and Advocate Hidayatullah Abbasi appeared on behalf of the others.

The court ordered that in case of default of payment of fine they would have to undergo another year in jail.

They were chargesheeted by the Tando Adam police under the Explosive Substance Acts 3 and 4.

Mr Hidayatullah argued before the court that there was simply no case against his clients and he disputed the identification parade.

He claimed that there was no recovery of earth from the railway tracks in order to establish that explosives had been used there, and added that there had simply been no explosion.

He maintained that the police did not send anything to the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) for being analyzed, and there was also no entry in police records about the visit of BDS officials.

He said that the police failed to find out any marks on the railway tracks if there had been any explosion.

Referring to the statement of a doctor of the Taluka hospital Tando Allahyar, Mr Abbasi contended that the doctor had certified that Abdul Ghani had been in police custody since December thus disputing the police statement of his arrest on Dec 31.