HYDERABAD/KARACHI, 23 May — A Pakistani judge in whose presence the suspected ringleader in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl is said to have made a confession has been barred from testifying in the trial, lawyers said yesterday.

Public Prosecutor Raja Qureshi said that a higher court had declined to give Judge Arshad Noor Khan, of the anti-terrorism court in Karachi, leave to testify.

“Therefore we are left with only three prosecution witnesses (yet to testify) including two investigating officers and one complainant Mrs. Pearl,” Qureshi said.

Four men, including suspected ringleader and British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, are on trial for Pearl’s kidnapping and murder in a closed-door hearing in a jail in Hyderabad, 160 km north of here. The accused deny charges of murder, kidnapping and terrorist activities. If convicted they could be executed. Another seven suspects are still on the run.

Defense lawyer Abdul Wahid Katpar also said Khan had been dropped from the witness list. “He’s not going to be called again, therefore the statement that Omar Sheikh said ‘I abducted Daniel Pearl’ has gone with the wind,” Katpar said.

Katpar said that Pearl’s widow, Mariane, was represented in court yesterday by Barrister Jamil Ahmed. Mrs. Pearl is pregnant with the couple’s first child.

“He submitted a statement on behalf of Mrs. Pearl and according to that statement and medical certificates, she is due to deliver on June 2, 2002 and thereafter if she is well enough she will come to the court and testify,” he said.

A body suspected to be Pearl’s remains was found on the outskirts of Karachi last week, dismembered and buried on a stretch of waste ground. DNA and forensic tests are under way to establish the identity.

Another defense lawyer, Mohsin Imam, said this week that the trial could be disrupted if it is confirmed that Pearl’s body has at last been found, four months after he went missing in Karachi on Jan. 23 as he investigated militants in Pakistan.

Activist shot dead after Karachi riots

An activist of an outlawed group was shot dead by an unknown gunman in Pakistan yesterday, the day after one person was killed and two were injured in sectarian violence here. Police said an assailant fired from close range at Muhammad Ibrahim of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan group after he had dropped his sons at school in Karachi’s central district.

“Ibrahim, an activist of SSP, died on the spot,” police officer Rehmat Khan said.

On Tuesday, two sectarian groups clashed in the center of this volatile southern port city, leaving one man dead, two injured and 40 vehicles ablaze.

Police, who fired warning shots to break up the riot which erupted during a religious procession, said yesterday they had arrested 50 people. “We have arrested 50 people on charges of burning vehicles, arson,”

Deputy Inspector General of Police Tariq Jamil said. Police and paramilitary troops are patrolling the area and other parts of the city to prevent further violence, he said. “There is no report of any violence this morning.”