KARACHI : The Sindh High Court on Thursday declared a notification with regard to detention of four accused of Daniel Pearl murder case as void.

A bench of the high court on a petition, declared detention of four accused of the murder, British national Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh, co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil as unlawful and ordered their immediate release from the jail.

The court observed that the accused have been in jail for last 18 years and ordered the accused to appear as and when the court summon them.

Assistant Attorney General earlier informed the court that the provincial government have authority to keep an accused in detention.

Provincial home department had detained the accused under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) on September 28.

Four convicts of the murder case, Ahmed Omer Saeed, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil had moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) challenging their convictions handed down by the Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Court in 2002, after finding them guilty of abducting and killing American Journalist Daniel Pearl.

The ATC had handed death sentence to main accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh and life sentence to other three accused.

The high court overturned the verdict of the ATC and acquitted the convicts on April 02 this year.

The Sindh Government and the family of Daniel Pearl have filed appeals against the high court verdict in Supreme Court and the case has been under hearing in the apex court.

The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was researching a story on religious extremists, in January 2002 in Karachi, when he was abducted and slain.