New Delhi . In 1994, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who kidnapped four foreign nationals in India and brought the Kashmir issue into the international world, and the killer of newspaper Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, will be freed once again. Omar Sheikh, who was imprisoned in Pakistan, was earlier given death sentence by the counter-terrorism court there. Which was later reduced to life imprisonment by a local court. On Thursday, the High Court of Sindh Province of Pakistan reduced the life imprisonment sentence to seven years. This means that Omar Sheikh, who has been in a very safe prison in Pakistan for the last 18 years, can be released. The government of Pakistan can go to the Supreme Court against this decision.
The decision of the Sindh Court has made it clear that terrorist organizations and notorious terrorists in the neighboring country are not taken seriously for punishment. A few months ago, Hafiz Saeed, who carried out several terrorist incidents in India, has also been released. While Hafiz Saeed’s aide and the main conspirator of the Mumbai attack Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi has already been released. It remains to be seen whether the Government of Pakistan appeals to the High Court against the decision of the Sindh High Court.
terrorist may be known as the killer of Daniel Pearl in the world but his Indian connection is even older. In late 1999, terrorists hijacked Indian Airlines IC 814, an Indian state-run airline. The then NDA government released three notorious terrorists to rescue its citizens in the ship, including Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Osama Sheikh. Osama was then serving a sentence in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh for kidnapping four foreign nationals in India.
In fact, Osama Sheikh and Masood Azhar were sent by Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI with a plan to increase terrorist activities in India. The kidnapping of foreign nationals was part of their plan to bring the issue of Kashmir to international level. Terrorist David Coleman Headley, later arrested on behalf of the CIA, revealed to the Indian agencies many things about Osama Sheikh, from how he went from Pakistan Army and intelligence officials to top al-Qaeda operatives and his Indian Has been acting as a bridge between agents.
After being released by Indian authorities, Omar Sheikh and Masood Azhar were used in different ways by Pakistan’s ISI. When Azhar advanced the strategy of inflicting thousands of wounds on India by forming Jaish-e-Mohammed, Omar Sheikh in collaboration with al Qaeda had started strengthening the network of Islamic terrorism internationally. Omar Sheikh was instrumental in raising funds for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the US.
Courtsey:jagran.com
