One of the suspects in the Al Qaeda backed 2002 kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, was acquitted today by an anti-terrorism court, citing lack of evidence, a lawyer said.

Qari Hashim was arrested in 2005 in connection with the kidnapping and murder case that made global headlines. He was freed of the charges by an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad in southern province of Sindh in a trial held inside a jail. Hashim's counsel Sher Mohammad Leghari had filed an acquittal plea on the basis of lack of evidence.