Pakistan Interior Ministry on Friday said that the Sindh government would file an appeal against the provincial high court ruling in the case of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded in 2002, in the Supreme Court next week.

The Ministry said in a statement that the federal government was “well aware of the facts of the judgment” issued by the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday which led to the acquittal of the four accused in the case, including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearl’s murder, The Express Tribune reported.

The other three were sentenced to life.

“The federal government is concerned about the decision however, as per constitutional scheme of things prosecution in criminal matters is a provincial subject, therefore similar concern has been shared with the government of Sindh,” said the statement.

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

The Sindh provincial government’s Home Department issued the order to arrest and detain the four before they were released from prison.

The Ministry said that “government of Pakistan reiterates its commitment to follow due process under the laws of the country to bring terrorists to task”, The Express Tribune reported.

The key accused, British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was handed down death penalty by an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad on July 15, 2002, for masterminding the murder.

He was in jail for 18 years awaiting the outcome of the appeal.

The official cited concern that the released men may act “against the interest of the country”.

The law to keep them in detention is one that the government has often used to keep high-profile suspects, particularly militants, in custody after being unable to successfully prosecute them in court.

However, the US welcomed Pakistan’s decision to appeal the verdict, saying that “those responsible for Daniel’s heinous kidnapping and murder must face the full measure of justice”.

Pakistan joined the US-led “war on terrorism” after the September 11 attacks on the United States but it has been dogged by suspicion that it has for years secretly backed some militant factions as tools in its decades-old confrontation with rival India.

(With inputs from agency)