India’s precision military action ' Operation Sindoor ', launched in response to the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack, has also achieved an unexpected but much-awaited outcome: bringing long-overdue justice to the family of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl , whose brutal murder in Pakistan shocked the world in 2002.
One of the nine terror infrastructure targets destroyed in the early hours of May 7 included a facility in Bahawalpur, long known as the stronghold of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the terrorist organisation led by Masood Azhar. The group is responsible for several terror attacks in India, including the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.
Daniel Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal , was abducted in Karachi while investigating terror links in Pakistan’s intelligence establishment. A month later, a chilling video emerged showing his beheading. Despite global outrage, accountability remained elusive, as those involved continued to operate freely under the protection of various terror outfits and their Pakistani patrons.
Bharatiya Janata Party and several reports also claimed that most wanted Abdul Rauf Azhar, brother of Masood Azhar was also killed in the strike.
Azhar’s role in the IC-814 hijacking had led to release of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who later kidnapped and killed Daniel Pearl.
Pearl’s collegue and Indian-American writer-journalist Asra Nomani also shared the his recolected the connectin between Bahawalpur and his killing.
Nomani wrote on X: "My friend, WSJ reporter Danny Pearl, went to Bahawalpur in December 2001 with a notebook and a pen. Gen. Pervez Musharraf had just promised he was shutting down Pakistan’s militant groups after a strike by Pakistan’s terrorists against the Parliament in India, and Danny reported on the militant offices in Bahawalpur. He literally knocked on their doors. Dear Dr. @yudapearl, this story is a window into Danny’s reporting enterprise. And because people will wonder: Danny was no cowboy. This was a calculated low-risk reporting trip because no journalist had been targeted for kidnapping in Pakistan. Around that time, Danny sent me an email: “I’m anxious to go to Afghanistan, but I’m not anxious to die.”
India's Operation Sindoor, named evocatively after the vermilion worn by married Indian women, symbolising the life tragically cut short in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, has gained symbolic resonance far beyond. In targeting those who harboured the perpetrators of terror not just against India but also the global community, it may have finally closed a painful chapter that began more than two decades ago with Pearl’s death.
One of the nine terror infrastructure targets destroyed in the early hours of May 7 included a facility in Bahawalpur, long known as the stronghold of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the terrorist organisation led by Masood Azhar. The group is responsible for several terror attacks in India, including the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.
Daniel Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal , was abducted in Karachi while investigating terror links in Pakistan’s intelligence establishment. A month later, a chilling video emerged showing his beheading. Despite global outrage, accountability remained elusive, as those involved continued to operate freely under the protection of various terror outfits and their Pakistani patrons.
Bharatiya Janata Party and several reports also claimed that most wanted Abdul Rauf Azhar, brother of Masood Azhar was also killed in the strike.
- कंधार प्लेन हाईजैक
— BJP (@BJP4India) May 8, 2025
- पठानकोट आतंकी हमला
- भारतीय संसद आतंकी हमला#OperationSindoor में मारा गया मोस्ट वांटेड पाकिस्तानी आतंकी अब्दुल रऊफ अजहर। pic.twitter.com/NKuRwptldH
Azhar’s role in the IC-814 hijacking had led to release of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who later kidnapped and killed Daniel Pearl.
Pearl’s collegue and Indian-American writer-journalist Asra Nomani also shared the his recolected the connectin between Bahawalpur and his killing.
“Bahawalpur.”
— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) May 8, 2025
I still have chills in my heart from when I first heard that town’s name in late January 2002. For the 23 years since, I have reported on how Pakistani intelligence and military leaders have used that city — Bahawalpur — in the southern province of Punjab as a base… pic.twitter.com/nFF6geUTp7
Nomani wrote on X: "My friend, WSJ reporter Danny Pearl, went to Bahawalpur in December 2001 with a notebook and a pen. Gen. Pervez Musharraf had just promised he was shutting down Pakistan’s militant groups after a strike by Pakistan’s terrorists against the Parliament in India, and Danny reported on the militant offices in Bahawalpur. He literally knocked on their doors. Dear Dr. @yudapearl, this story is a window into Danny’s reporting enterprise. And because people will wonder: Danny was no cowboy. This was a calculated low-risk reporting trip because no journalist had been targeted for kidnapping in Pakistan. Around that time, Danny sent me an email: “I’m anxious to go to Afghanistan, but I’m not anxious to die.”
“Bahawalpur.”
— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) May 8, 2025
I still have chills in my heart from when I first heard that town’s name in late January 2002. For the 23 years since, I have reported on how Pakistani intelligence and military leaders have used that city — Bahawalpur — in the southern province of Punjab as a base… pic.twitter.com/nFF6geUTp7
India's Operation Sindoor, named evocatively after the vermilion worn by married Indian women, symbolising the life tragically cut short in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, has gained symbolic resonance far beyond. In targeting those who harboured the perpetrators of terror not just against India but also the global community, it may have finally closed a painful chapter that began more than two decades ago with Pearl’s death.
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