Omerta (2017)

A recounting of the story of infamous British-born terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Rajkummar Rao), who kidnapped and murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Omar was born in Britain, but frequently traveled to Pakistan. By 1994, he was radicalized by AlQaeda operatives in Lahore.

The same year he is ordered to enter India for surveillance purposes. His precise orders are to befriend influential Europeans whom he meets in Delhi. In a few days he befriends and kidnaps Rhys Partridge who is the son of the Czech Ambassador. Using Rhys as bait, Al Qaeda demands the release of Muslim terrorists in Serbia. Next, he kidnaps American diplomatic attache girl named Bella. He then records and publishes a video statement of the hostages condemning the actions of their own governments. He is nabbed by the police when he visits his handler, and the police is already waiting there. Omar is tortured by the police. His lawyer advises Omar that the best way to get out of India is to plead for the trial in UK as Omar is a British citizen. The story reverts to 1992 to a meeting in London, where the radicalization starts over the Serbs treatment of Bosnian Muslims where hundreds of thousands died in ethnic genocide. Omar contacts a local Maulana, who gets him to travel to Pakistan to meet Maulana Abdullah in Karachi. Abdullah organizes training for Omar. Omar travels to PoK to a terrorist training camp to complete his induction into Al Qaeda. He is also paid a visit from Maulana Masood Azhar (Sanjeev Mehta) who share his own philosophy with the new recruits. Masood spots the potential in Omar and sends him for higher level training with the ISI. Masood then changes Omar's mind to focus on the struggle in Kashmir. Masood goes on a mission in India and gets arrested. In 2000, after the IC814 hijack, 3 people are released in exchange for hostages. 2 of them are Omar and Masood Azhar. Omar returns triumphant to Al Qaeda HQ in Afghanistan. In Dec 2000, Omar gets married to Saadia (Orvana Ghai). In Sep 2001, the world trade center twin towers are attacked in New York. Omar is linked to organizing funding for these attacks. Later in 2001, Daniel Pearl (Timothy Ryan) is a US reporter who travels to Pakistan to complete his investigation on how the Pakistani Govt is sheltering terrorist organizations like JeM, Masood Azhar etc. Daniel meets Omar in Lahore and expresses his desire to meet Syed Gilani. Omar is hesitant as he doesn't know if Daniel works for the CIA. In 2002, Omar wins Daniel's trust by promising him to take him to Gilani, but then abducts him on the instructions of the ISI. A few months later Daniel is shot after he has repeated ideological arguments with Omar. Subsequent US pressure leads to the arrest of Omar by Pakistani authorities. In 2002, he is sentenced to death, but is active from the Hyderabad jail even in 2008. He is shown to orchestrate the Mumbai attacks, as well as making fake phone calls to the Govts of India and Pakistan, that bring them to the cusp of war.