KARACHI: Pakistan executed 12 death row prisoners early Tuesday morning, the latest executions since the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty for all capital crimes.
The executions were among 14 death sentences scheduled to be carried out on Tuesday at different jails in Karachi, Multan, Jhang, Gujranwala, Mianwali, Faisalad and Rawalpindi.
Two execution orders were stayed in Multan and
By GEO ENGLISH
March 17, 2015
KARACHI: Pakistan executed 12 death row prisoners early Tuesday morning, the latest executions since the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty for all capital crimes.
The executions were among 14 death sentences scheduled to be carried out on Tuesday at different jails in Karachi, Multan, Jhang, Gujranwala, Mianwali, Faisalad and Rawalpindi.
Two execution orders were stayed in Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Among the orders stayed was that of robbery and murder convict Waqar Nazir, who was pardoned by the victims family shortly before the execution was about to take place. Waqar had killed Taufeeq in Multan in 1996.
Another death sentence was halted at the central jail in Dera Ghazi Khan after the victim's family pardoned the murder convict.
A total of 39 people have now been executed in Pakistan since the government restarted executions in December.
Murder, rape convicts among those hanged
Murder convicts Malik Nadeem and Mohammad Javed were hanged at the Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi.
Two death row prisoners were executed at the Central Jail in Karachi. Both men, Mohammad Afzal and Mohammad Faisal, had had committed a murder while carrying out a robbery in Karachi's Korangi area.
Death sentences of three prisoners were carried out at the District Jail Jhang.
Convict Riaz had committed a murder in 1995 during a domestic dispute. The other two prisoners, Mubashir and Sharif, had kidnapped and murdered a taxi-driver in 2012.
Zafar Iqbal was hanged at the Multan Central Jail for sexually abusing and killing a six-year-old girl.
Prison authorities at the District Jail Mianwali hanged murder convicts Zafar Iqbal and Rab Nawaz. Iqbal had killed his father in 2003, while Nawaz had murdered a woman in the year 2000.
Two death row prisoners were also hanged at the Faisalabad and Gujranwala central jails.
Reintroducing the death penalty was part of the Pakistani government's move to step up its fight against militants and criminals after Taliban attackers killed over 130 children at Peshawar’s Army Public School in December.
The death penalty moratorium, in force since 2008, was initially lifted only in terrorism cases, but the government extended it to all capital crimes earlier this week.
