KARACHI: Pakistan's Sindh province government on Thursday extended for another three months the custody of British-born al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three aides whose sentences in the abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 were overturned in April.
The move comes days after the Supreme Court on June 29 rejected a petition filed by the Sindh government to suspend a high court verdict that overturned the conviction of the four men.
The court, however, allowed the province to take measures to keep them in custody.
Their detention expired on July 1. Officials said that the Sindh government extended their custody for another 90 days.
Superintendent of Karachi Central Prison, Hasan Sehtoo, told the media that the accused would stay behind the bars until September 30.
Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the alleged links between the country's powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.
On April 2, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench overturned the death sentence of 46-year-old al-Qaeda leader, who was convicted in the abduction and murder of Pearl in 2002.
He has been in jail for the past 18 years.
The court also acquitted his three aides - Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil- serving life sentences in the case.
Two days after the Sindh High Court overturned Sheikh's conviction, the Sindh government invoked the Maintenance of Public Order to keep the four convicts in jail.
The province also filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against their acquittal.
Pearl's parents also filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the judgment of the high court to release the accused.
Meanwhile, the apex court is expected to hear the appeal on September 25 when a decision could be taken on the appeal against their acquittal.
The US had criticised the Pakistani court for overturning the death sentence of the al-Qaeda leader, terming the verdict an "affront" to the victims of terrorism everywhere.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has mounted pressure on Pakistan by demanding justice for Pearl.
The United States will not forget Daniel Pearl, Pompeo said in a tweet in early April.
We continue to honour his legacy as a courageous journalist and demand justice for his brutal murder, he said. In May, the US prodded Pakistan by seeking justice for Pearl.
"On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, we honour the legacy of journalist Daniel Pearl. We appreciate the Govt of Pakistan's 4/22 appeal to reinstate guilty verdicts against Daniel's murderers, now buttressed by the filing of the Pearl family's appeal before the Supreme Court," State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells tweeted on May 3.
Pearl's murder took place three years after Sheikh, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was released by India in 1999 and given safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the nearly 150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814.
He was serving prison term in India for kidnappings of Western tourists in the country.