HYDERABAD, May 14: Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge, Hyderabad, Syed Ali Ashraf Shah along with the accused, prosecution and defence lawyers here on Tuesday witnessed the three-minute video footage that showed US journalist Daniel Pearl being assassinated by his captives.

The cassette was produced before the court in a sealed cover by a special agent of FBI, Mr John Moligan.

The court will hear on May 16, a plea requesting constituting of a team to go abroad and record the statement of Marine Pearl, wife of Daniel Pearl.

The court, however, reserved its order on the application of Defence Counsel Rai Basheer Ahmed, seeking registration of blasphemy case against Advocate General Raja Qureshi.

Attorney General Raja Qureshi, in an application, has requested the court to allow him to bring on record a report of handwriting expert, Ghulam Akbar Jaferi, that proved that the specimen’s of the accused handwriting were the same.

Later, talking to newsmen defence counsel Rai Basheer refused to accept the video footage as genuine, and raised a number of doubts.

He said that it is difficult to comprehend what Daniel Pearl was saying in the cassette. He also said that “there was no resistance on part of the slain journalist, when he apparently was being slaughtered”. “Rather Pearl was shown in the video with a smiling face,” he remarked.

The court on Tuesday examined two more prosecution witnesses, FBI agent John Moligan and Rajesh Kumar.

The FBI agent deposed before the court that under directives of his superiors from New Jersy, USA, he had assisted the local investigating agencies in Pakistan in the Daniel Pearl case, and had returned back on Feb 28.

He said a source had provided him the video tape, and he had prepared four copies of the same. He told the court that under the law, he could not reveal the identity of his source.

At this point, Raja Qureshi also argued that the FBI agent enjoyed immunity under Article 6 of the Qanoon-e-Shahdat in this context.

John Moligan said that out of four copies, one was given to FBI in Karachi, second to the US consul general at Karachi, and the third copy to the local investigators. He said that he had taken the original copy to the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC.

The second prosecution witness, Rajesh Kumar, owner of a computer shop in Karachi, told the court that one person had purchased a scanner and a printer from his shop, and added that he had also issued a warranty card.

During his cross-examination, he said the receipt was issued in the name of Suleman Saqib Naseem. Kumar, however, did not identify any of the accused present in the court.

The prosecution claimed that the warranty card in question was recovered from Omer Sheikh.