Sindh Government on April 3, invoked the maintenance of public order to keep in jail British-born al Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh after a court overturned his death sentence in the abduction and murder of United States (US) journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002, reports The Times of India. Three of his accomplices, who were acquitted on April 2, will also remain in prison. Sheikh was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearl’s murder. The other three were sentenced to life. On April 2, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench had found Sheikh guilty of the lesser charge of kidnapping and commuted his death sentence to seven years in prison. According to the law, Sheikh was eligible to walk free as he had already served 18 years in prison on the death row. The Sindh Government acted swiftly to invoke the order which allows it to keep the four convicts behind bars for three months. According to a notification issued by the Sindh Home Ministry, the release of Sheikh and his three associates could jeopardise the law and order situation in the province, thus, necessitating their continued detention.