Security concern shifts Pearl trial from Karachi to Hyderabad court

A Pakistan court on Tuesday moved the trial of four men charged with kidnapping and killing American reporter Daniel Pearl out of Karachi because of security fears, the prosecution said. The advocate general of the province of Sindh, Raja Qureshi, told Reuters the trial had been moved from Karachi to an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad.

Qureshi had asked the Sindh High Court on Monday to move the case, saying reports from unspecified sources indicated there was a threat of an attack on the Karachi jail where the closed-door trial began a week ago.

“The court has transferred the case for trial before the anti-terrorism court, Hyderabad, with the direction that the court shall convene proceedings inside the central prison of Hyderabad effective from May 3, 2002,” Qureshi told Reuters.

The decision means the case will be tried by a third judge,Ali Ashraf, who heads the anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad.