LAHORE: A Pakistani-British man who was on death row for 18 years before his acquittal in the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl was transferred on Monday to a government safe house for security reasons, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh was handed over to the Punjab Counter-Terrorism department amid tight security, a senior police officer, Suhail Sukhera told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheikh was moved to his home city of Lahore from Karachi. Sukhera provided no further details and only said Sheikh was being kept at a well-guarded place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheikh was acquitted by the Sindh High Court in April 2020 and since then Pearl\u2019s family and the government have been fighting a legal battle to overturn the acquittal. Washington has also expressed concern over the acquittal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheikh has been in custody despite his acquittal under a special law allowing the government to detain people deemed a security risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transfer comes more than a month after the Supreme Court ordered Sheikh moved to a safe house from a special jail cell for inmates sentenced to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities say Sheikh will not be allowed to leave the safe house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pearl disappeared on Jan 23, 2002, in Karachi where he was investigating links between militant groups and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the shoe bomber. Reid had attempted to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes. Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in Karachi, during which he was kidnapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pearl\u2019s body was discovered in a shallow grave soon after a video of his beheading was delivered to the US Consulate in Karachi. The Pentagon in 2007 released a transcript in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9\/11 attacks on the United States, said he had killed Pearl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newspaper: Dawn<\/a> , The News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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