The Sindh government agreed to rearrest the four men charged with murdering journalist Daniel Pearl hours after they were cleared of the charge by the Sindh High Court.

The home department released an order indicating that, on the advice of the CIA DIG, they would be held for another three months, saying their release would trigger a “severe law and order situation.”

Ahmed Omar Shaikh, Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Salman Saqib and Sheik Muhammad Adil will stay another three months in custody. The court acquitted three of them on Thursday but sentenced Ahmed Omar Shaikh to 7 years for kidnapping.

Their appeals against their death sentences were pending for 18 years.

The tribunal had ordered Ahmed, Saqib and Adil to be released. But the government has exercised and detained its authority under section 3(1) of the 1960 West Pakistan Public Order Maintenance Ordinance. For these three months they will remain in Central Prison, Karachi.

They were first accused in 2002 of murdering journalist Pearl.

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