Opinion - Editorials

A salutary anti-terror verdict

THE DEATH SENTENCE that a Pakistani judge has imposed on Omar Sheikh in the case relating to the abduction and murder of the American journalist, Daniel Pearl, sends out a strong message of positive relevance to the ongoing global campaign against political terrorism. Although the trial of Omar Sheikh and his suspected accomplices has lacked the kind of transparency that would have reinforced the credibility of the legal process, there is no hard evidence at all to suggest that a miscarriage of justice might have occurred. Entirely explicable were the circumstances in which a veil of enormous secrecy was drawn over the hearings inside a prison in the Pakistani city of Hyderabad. Not surprisingly, a defence lawyer is reported to have indicated that Omar Sheikh would challenge the verdict against him in a manner that could shake the foundations of Pakistan's present regime. Now, whatever might be the controversies within Pakistan over the domestic political policies of its President, Pervez Musharraf, his stated commitment to combat terrorism evokes a resonance far beyond the confines of his country. Of abiding interest to the international community is the sustainability of his strategic decision, first announced last year, to wage a war against the terrorist activities of the misguided "Islamic jehadis'' within Pakistan and to make common cause with other countries to control this phenomenon across the world. It is in this overall context that the world will watch how Pakistan's President and its judicial system might carry this anti-terror process forward.

It should be underlined that Gen. Musharraf can and must stay the anti-terror course without being deterred by the bluff and bluster of Omar Sheikh and the others of his line of murderous thinking. Nor should the Pakistan President slow down his campaign against religious radicalism at home for the fear of provoking a fierce backlash from Omar Sheikh's ideological fellow travellers whose number is not negligible. From Gen. Musharraf's standpoint, what is at stake is not only the moral underpinning of his anti-terror strategy but also his own political survival in the face of "internationalised'' Islamic radicalism. The trial and punishment of Omar Sheikh and his alleged co-conspirators have already put Gen. Musharraf's own credibility on line. While the Pakistan President seems to have held his ground quite successfully so far, the litmus test of his anti-terror leadership is far from over.

In a critical sense, Gen. Musharraf's challenges are compounded by Omar Sheikh's origin as a British-born activist with a Pakistan-related agenda and by his political moorings as an "internationalist jehadi'' with a record of fomenting anti-India terror as a "special'' skill. New Delhi's agonised and forced action of releasing Omar Sheikh, among a few others, in exchange for the liberty of the passengers of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999 may have marked a phase in his evolution as a purveyor of terror. If the reported fragments of Omar Sheikh's "autobiographical'' confessions are to be taken into account, it appears that he fancied himself to be adept at propagating the notion of designer terrorism in the name and style of "jehad'' by the time he masterminded the abduction of Daniel Pearl in Karachi on January 23 this year. The Pearl murder case does, in many ways, symbolise not only the reach of international terror but also the range of inter-state cooperation in anti-terror investigations. Reportedly, America's technical help, especially from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has enabled the Pakistani authorities to crack the Pearl case through suitable electronic surveillance. It is this aspect that seems to have provoked Omar Sheikh to accuse Gen. Musharraf of having succumbed to American pressure and influenced the Pakistani judiciary at this stage. However, the real merit of the latest judgment against Omar Sheikh is that it has the potential to encourage the entire international community to combat political terrorism by every means without fear.

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