ISI blocked Pakistan judges from delivering justice in Daniel Pearl's murder case: Report

It’s been a month since Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted the main suspect in Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case and directed the government to move him in a “safe house”. The apex court of the Islamic country overturned the death sentence handed to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in the Daniel Pearl beheading case and asked the government to move him out of the prison to a safe house. Daniel Pearl, who was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2001, and the family of the journalist is yet to receive closure. 

ISI's effort to frame Sheikh & FBI's botched-up investigation

According to SpyTalk, the delay in delivering justice is a result of Pakistan’s security agencies deliberately misleading authorities, combined with a botched up investigation by the FBI and the US Justice Department. The report said that Pakistan’s top-most security agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) never wanted the real culprits behind the beheading to get caught, hence, puting all their efforts to frame Omar Sheikh for the murder of Daniel Pearl. It is believed that Sheikh only orchestrated the kidnapping before Al-Qaeda terrorists, particularly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, popularly known as KSM behind the 9/11 attacks, took over. 

According to SpyTalk, the ISI, which allegedly backs these terrorist organisations and uses them as proxies to attack India, forced authorities to blame the murder on Omar Sheikh. As per the report, a series of bad decisions by the FBI and the then US prosecutor Chris Christie made the case even worse, which experts say would not stand a chance in any American court and Sheikh would be acquitted within weeks. The report says that despite the FBI’s own investigation showing Sheikh himself was never present during the kidnapping or the murder, Pakistan authorities insisted otherwise. Christie was allegedly adamant about accepting the information provided by Pakistan authorities so that Sheikh could be tried and sentenced as quickly as possible. 

However, investigations revealed that on the day of the kidnapping Sheikh was actually with his family in Islamabad, which is hundreds of kilometres away from Karachi. Sheikh even volunteered to the police, accepting his role in the kidnapping, but denied any involvement in the murder, the report added. Sheikh said his original plan was to negotiate with the US authorities on sending the F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan had paid for but never received. However, after Pearl was kidnapped, the Al-Qaeda took over and did what they did, the beheaded Daniel Pearl on camera. 

FBI, which watched the beheading video frame by frame, revealed that Sheikh was not present during the murder, but KSM was. They concluded one of the persons in the video was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was arrested a year later in 2002. KSM was taken to CIA black sites for interrogation and four years later he confessed to personally beheading Daniel Pearl for the purpose of propaganda. But, KSM was never charged for Pearl’s murder, in fact, he is awaiting trial for the 9/11 attacks. Also, note that the CIA and ISI have a long history of cooperation as the Pakistani agency helps its American counterpart in Afghanistan. 

(With inputs from ANI)