Pakistan re-arrests four men acquitted in Daniel Pearl case.

KARACHI: The authorities ordered on Friday four men, including a British national convicted of the 2002 murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, to be detained for three months despite a lower court's ruling to overturn their convictions.

The Sindh High Court had on Thursday acquitted the four, including Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearl's murder. The other three were sentenced to life.

Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, 38, was investigating militants in the city of Karachi after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was kidnapped in January 2002. He was beheaded weeks later.

The Sindh Home Department issued the order to arrest and detain the four before they were released from prison. "The government of Sindh has sufficient reason that Ahmed Omar Sheikh and Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Syed Salman Saqib, Sheikh Muhammad Adil be arrested and detained for a period of three months from the date of arrest (April 2, 2020)," a notification issued by the department said, adding that the released men may act 'against the interest of the country'.

The Sindh government invoked the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law to keep the four men in detention for another 90 days. The orders were issued under Section 3 of the MPO.

"We are surprised at the timing of the verdict ... the order shall be...