The newly sworn-in Joe Biden government in the United States has been stymied by two moves from Pakistan. Following on the heels of testing a 1,700 km missile on Biden’s inauguration day, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday released Omar Saeed Sheikh, the 47-year-old who was the prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in 2002. Sheikh was in jail for nearly two decades. Although the court announced his acquittal on Thursday, he is yet to be discharged from prison.
Antony Blinken, the new US secretary of state, said that they were deeply concerned about the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to “acquit those involved in Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder and any proposed action to release them”. Pointing out Sheikh’s role in the hostage taking conspiracy resulting in the murder of Pearl, as well as the kidnapping of another US citizen from India in 1994, Blinken said that the “court’s decision is an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan.” He said that the US “recognises past Pakistani actions to hold Omar Sheikh accountable and notes that Sheikh currently remains detained under Pakistani law. We expect the Pakistani government to expeditiously review its legal options to ensure justice is served. We take note of the Attorney General’s statement that he intends to seek review and recall of the decision.”
Blinken said that the US was committed to securing justice for Pearl’s family and was prepared to prosecute Sheikh in the US for “his horrific crimes against an American citizen”.
On Thursday, India had called the Pakistani court’s ruling a “travesty of justice”. Sheikh was one of the three men India had to release from its prisons in exchange for the passengers and crew of AI 814, a Kathmandu-New Delhi flight that was hijacked by five men on December 24, 1999 and taken to Kandahar. One of the passengers, Rupen Katial, was killed by the hijackers, after which India gave in to the demands for the release of the terrorists. While Sheikh went on to kill Pearl, the other two terrorists, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Zargar launched a series of terrorist attacks from Pakistani soil on India. Azhar, who was the mastermind behind the 2001 Parliament attacks as well as the Mumbai 26/11 attacks of 2008, was proscribed as a global terrorist in 2019 by the United Nations Security Council, after many efforts from India. He is currently in Pakistan. Zargar has been identified as the man behind a series of terrorist attacks, especially on security forces, in Jammu and Kashmir, over the years.
Islamabad’s moves have come as a surprise for many observers. Former Pakistani envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani tweeted: “A missile test on inauguration day and now this....Someone in Islamabad does not realize or is deliberately making sure the Biden administration continues to see #Pakistan unfavorably.”
Deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center Michael Kugelman tweeted, “On Biden’s Inauguration Day, Pakistan tested a ballistic missile with a 1700 mile range. 8 days later, its Supreme Court acquitted 4 men convicted of abducting and executing Daniel Pearl. Islamabad has called for a fresh start for US-Pak ties in the Biden era, but these optics...”
Former president Donald Trump’s Pakistan policy was pretty harsh, and there was expectation that Biden will recalibrate ties with Pakistan, one of the few countries that the US calls a Non-NATO ally. The Abraham Accord in West Asia, which is establishing Israel’s diplomatic ties with the Islamic world, was a Trump-brokered initiative, which has rather isolated Pakistan in the region.
Pakistan continues to be on the intergovernmental global terror funding watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list, the review is up in February, just a few days away. Pakistan’s decisions just on the eve of this important review, therefore, have caused a further raising of eyebrows. Without a green signal from FATF, international funding, which a cash strapped Pakistan much needs, remains on hold.
Meanwhile, Biden has decided to continue Zalmay Khalilzad, the US’ special envoy on Afghanistan. In the US, such appointees are political ones, and change with every dispensation. Khalilzad is the only Trump-appointed man to continue, at least till the US reviews its Afghanistan policy in a few weeks. He has been instrumental in getting the various factions to sit together and forge out an intra Afghanistan peace accord. The talks, being held in Doha, are a work in progress.
