Pakistan Foils Bid To Free Pearl's Killer

British-born extremist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is in prison over the 2002 beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

Pakistan says it has foiled an attempt to free a British-born militant who is on death row for the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

A plot to free Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh from Hyderabad Central Jail was worked out by three militant groups - al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - as the execution date drew near.

A military spokesman said at a news conference: "A deputy leader of al Qaeda in the Subcontinent named Mussanah was mastermind of the plan and was arranging all the finances while he was aided by the deputy chief of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Naeem Bukhari."

The two men and another man were later put on display in handcuffs.

The military spokesmen said the men had prepared two explosive-laden vehicles which they were supposed to ram into the gate of the prison.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh arrives at court in 2002

They had on them a list of prisoners they should kill after getting into the jail and another 100 prisoners to rescue.

The same group is reported to be behind terrorist incidents across the country, including the 2014 siege of Karachi airport, and attacks on a naval base, air base and intelligence headquarters in the cities of Multan and Sukkur.

Pearl, 38, was researching a story about Islamist militants while working as head of the WSJ's South Asia office when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002.

British-born extremist Sheikh was arrested soon after and sentenced to death. Three others received life sentences and one was later acquitted.

A report researched by a friend and colleague of Pearl's in 2011 claimed the wrong men were convicted of the murder, with the alleged brains behind the 11 September 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, being the real killer.

He is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay.