EFL
An Islamic militant sentenced to death for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was moved to a different prison for security reasons, the interior minister said on Monday. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British citizen, was moved earlier this month from a prison in the southern city of Hyderabad to one in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, said Faisal Saleh Hayyat. Security in Hyderabad was not "not compatible with the requirements of keeping such a high profile prisoner," he told reporters. Hayyat said the government had been receiving intelligence reports about the need to increase security around Sheikh which forced it to "take pre-emptive action before it is late." He did not elaborate.
| Could always just go ahead and stretch his neck... |
When Sheikh was moved on Jan. 18, a prison official said he had likely been wanted for questioning about other men who have been arrested over a failed assassination attempt in Rawalpindi against Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The president escaped unhurt but 16 others were killed in the Dec. 25 attack. Hayyat did not comment on whether Sheikh was being questioned about the attack, which authorities suspect was the work of local Islamic militants, possibly working with al-Qaida. |