FAISALABAD: Four more terrorists involved in an attack on former president Pervez Musharraf in 2003 were hanged in the district jail here at 3:30pm on Sunday, bringing the number of executions to six after the government lifted a moratorium on capital punishment in terror-related cases.
The moratorium was lifted following the martyrdom of 149 people, mostly children, in a brutal attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on Dec 16.
Earlier on Friday, two convicted terrorists, Aqeel alias Dr Usman and Arshad Mahmood alias Mehrban, were sent to the gallows at the same jail at 9:00pm amid tight security.
Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti, Zubair Ahmed, Rasheed Mehmood Qureshi alias Tipu and Akhlaq Ahmed alias Roosi (Russian) were hanged in the district jail where they were shifted from the central jail on Saturday night amid tight security.
“Ghulam Sarwar, Rasheed Tipu, Zubair Ahmed and Akhlaq Ahmed have been hanged for an assassination attempt on Gen Pervez Musharraf,” a prison official said.
The executions came as the president rejected their mercy petitions against the death penalty awarded by a competent court. Their black warrants were issued two days ago.
According to well-informed diplomatic circles in Islamabad,
after army chief General Raheel Sharif had signed the death warrants for Akhlaq Roosi and six others, Russian Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Ombudsman quickly approached Pakistan’s foreign office with a request to mitigate the death sentence of the Russian national. The Russian authorities had been constantly pleading with Pakistani authorities ever since Akhlaq’s conviction by a military court in 2005 that he was falsely implicated in the Musharraf attack case because of some misunderstanding. Akhlaq Ahmedovich (his Russian name) was only 16 years old [in 2001] when he had travelled to Pakistan to meet his Pakistani father [in Azad Kashmir]. Akhlaq was born in the Russian city of Volgograd in 1981 to a Russian mother and a
Pakistani father.
Earlier, the relatives were allowed to meet the four convicts for the last time. They were medically checked by a team of doctors before execution.
The administration deployed a large number of police, army and paramilitary troops in and around the jail amid a terror threat. Traffic on the Jaranwala Road, Satiana Road and University Road remained suspended till 5pm.
The army took over the jail security, as the threat of attacks on sensitive jails across the country looms.
Before their execution, the four terrorists advised their colleagues to think while committing any ruthless and inhuman act and avoid targeting innocent children, women and unarmed people.
They were visibly frightened and seeking mercy from the jail staff for their cruel, inhuman and un-Islamic act.
Recording their last will, the convicted terrorists repented their misdeeds and crimes and advised their companions not to kill any Muslim as “a Muslim should not kill another Muslim”.
The convicts were shivering with fear and they hung their head in shame when the jail staff approached them for their last wish. They admitted that their brutal and inhuman acts had finally brought them to the gallows.
Meanwhile, the government rejected a request of the Russian Embassy to stay the execution of Akhlaq Ahmed alias Roosi.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Sputnik, Akhlaq Roosi’s father and Russian national Akhlas Akhlaq said the body of his son be buried in his own country.
“His dead body must be brought to Russia. It would be humane to let his mother and brother see his face once again,” Akhlas said.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement confirming that Akhlaq was hanged along with three accomplices.
Earlier on Sunday, Akhlaq’s mother told Sputnik that her son was libeled, adding that the Pakistanis abducted him and kept him in custody on completely concocted charges.
Akhlaq was born in the Russian city of Volgograd in 1981 to a Russian mother and a Pakistani father. He was raised and educated in Russia, but decided to move to Pakistan.
