Two death row prisoners hanged in Faisalabad jail

FAISALABAD: Prison authorities in Faisalabad on Friday hanged two death row prisoners convicted of murder and rape, bringing to 27 the number of executions in Pakistan since it resumed capital punishment in December.

Sources told Geo News that the two convicts – Sajid alias 'Taru' and Mohammad Akhtar alias 'Haseena' – were hanged to death early Friday morning at the Faisalabad Central Jail.

Sajid was sentenced to death for murder, while Akhtar was convicted of committing murder and rape.

On Thursday, Muhammad Siddique – a security guard convicted by an anti-terrorism court of murdering three people in a theatre following a quarrel – was hanged in Toba Tek Singh district.

The government in December lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases, after the Taliban massacred over 130 children at Peshawar's Army Public School — the deadliest ever terrorist attack in the country.

Earlier this week, the government extended the order and directed provincial governments to proceed with hangings for all death row prisoners who had exhausted their appeals and clemency petitions.