Another convict of Musharraf attack hanged

PESHAWAR: The first execution of a convicted terrorist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a fairly long time took place on Wednesday when a former Pakistan Air Force technician was hanged at the Peshawar Central Prison.
The convict Niaz Muhammad had been sentenced to death for making an attempt on the life of the then president and army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003.Niaz Muhammad, a resident of Swabi district, was hanged amid tight security at 5:30 am in the presence of Judicial Magistrate Johar Ijaz, the Prison Superintendent, Masoodur Rehman and the medical officer.
An official told The News that the prison authorities arranged the last meeting between Niaz Muhammad and his family members, including brother, wife and three children before his execution. The convict was brought to the Peshawar Central Prison around 9:30 pm by the personnel of the law-enforcing agencies from the Central Prison Haripur.
“I wanted to escape from the custody of the law-enforcing agencies, but I failed to break the tight security. Now I am waiting to be hanged,” one of his family members quoted the 40-year old convict as saying.His body was handed over to his relatives at 7:00 am on Wednesday and they took it to their village in Swabi district for burial. His funeral in Tarkha village was attended by a large number of people.
The first attempt on the life of General (retd) Musharraf was made near Jhanda Chichi bridge in Rawalpindi on Dec 14, 2003. Six PAF personnel were convicted in the case by a military court at the PAF Base Chaklala on October 3, 2005 after being kept in detention for more than 20 months.
Besides Niaz Mohammad, four PAF personnel, including junior technician Adnan Rasheed, who later escaped in the 2012 Bannu jailbreak, chief technician Khalid Mehmood, senior technician Karam Din, and corporal technician Nawazish were sentenced to death in the case.
The sixth convict, Nasrullah, a junior technician, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Their joint appeal was dismissed by a PAF appellate court in February 2006. Later on March 28 the same year, the Lahore High Court dismissed their petitions.
A Supreme Court bench headed by the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had rejected their appeals against the high court verdict on September 25, 2006.The bench held that under Article 199 of the Constitution, civil courts had no jurisdiction to issue a writ against orders passed by military courts. The review petitions of the convicts were also dismissed by the apex court in 2011.
In their petitions, Niaz Mohammad and other convicts had alleged they had been falsely implicated in the case.They claimed they had voted against General Musharraf in the 2002 referendum and that was the reason they were picked up after the December 2003 attempt to kill the army chief. They said they were severely tortured during their illegal detention.
A soldier of the Pakistan Army, Abdul Islam Siddiqui, who was separately tried in the same case by a military court, was executed on August 20, 2005 after his conviction by the court.Muhammad Farooq adds from Swabi: Niaz Muhammad was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard on Wednesday.
The body was brought to his house in an ambulance on Wednesday morning.Announcements were made on loudspeakers in Tarkha, Yar Hussain and other nearby villages to inform the people about the funeral, which was held at 3:00 pm.
The deceased belonged to Tarkha, a lush green village in Chota Lahor tehsil.His funeral was attended by his relatives and people belonging to Tarkha and other surrounding villages.There was great rush of the people at the funeral. The media was not allowed to make videos or take photographs. However, some relatives of Niaz Muhammad were taking photographs of both the burial and funeral on cellphones.
Along with Niaz Muhammad, another person from Swabi district convicted in the Gen Musharraf assassination case is former PAF junior technician Adnan Rasheed, who belongs to Chota Lahor village.