Daniel Pearl's father calls out Pak Army's presence at terrorist's funeral: 'What exactly are you mourning'

The morning that followed India’s Operation Sindoor – in which armed forces wiped out nine terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir – saw Pakistani Army personnel attending the funeral of three terrorists neutralised in the strikes.

The funeral prayer for terrorists Qari Abdul Malik, Khalid and Mudassir was held in Muridke amid high security, and was held by Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist.

Now Judea Pearl, father of slain American-Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl, has questioned the presence of Pakistani Army official at the funeral of terrorists.

“I wish these dignitaries could tell us: "What exactly are you mourning? What role models you wish your children to revere? What have you learned from this man?” he wrote on X, quoting a post that carried a photo from the funeral prayer.

I wish these dignitaries could tell us: "What exactly are you mourning? What role models you wish your children to revere? What have you learned from this man? https://t.co/Z6DRQFJvkR

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Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) May 9, 2025

The Operation Sindoor neutralised over 100 terrorists, including Abdul Rauf Azhar. Azhar’s role in the IC-814 hijacking had led to release of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who later kidnapped and killed American-Jewish journalist, Daniel Pearl.

Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002 in Pakistan while covering a story on the links between Al Qaeda and Pakistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.

During the MEA press briefing on Operation Sindoor on Friday, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri answered a question on the link between Bahawalpur and Daniel Pearl, to which he said, "Bahawalpur is the headquarters of Jaish-e-Muhammed, a terrorist group, proscribed terrorist group by the United Nations...Jaish was directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Daniel Pearl, but the real connection is through Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-Pakistani jihadi, who was arrested in India and later released...and these are all connected figures, individuals."

On the intervening night of May 7 and 8, India struck nine targets - Bahawalpur, Muridke, Chakarmu, Sialkot, Gulpur, Bhumber, Kotli and two locations in Muzzafarabad.

In the precision strikes on Bahawalpur, 10 members of Masood Azhar's family and four of his aides were killed. Azhar's brother, Abdul Rauf Azhar,  mastermind of the IC-814 hijack, was also killed in the strikes in one of the nine sites.