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Friday March 29, 2024

Only four executioners executed 440 death row prisoners

By Sher Ali Khalti
November 06, 2018

LAHORE: Three out of seven posts of executioners in Punjab Prisons Department are lying vacant as four executioners have executed 440 death row prisoners from Punjab jails in the last five years.

These condemned prisoners were executed after the rejection of their mercy appeals since moratorium on capital punishment was lifted five years ago, The News learnt. Sources informed that the prisoners, who were put to the gallows, included murderers, rapists and high profile terrorists detained in different prisons of Punjab province. Sources in the Punjab Home Department and Inspectorate General of Prison Punjab confirmed that 70 mercy petitions of death prisoners were still pending before president of Pakistan.

According to sources in Home Department, many mercy petitions are under process for being sent to President Arif Alvi after their appeals against death sentence were rejected by higher courts.

According to an official document, a total of 28 prisoners were executed from January 2017 to September 2018. Eighteen out of 28 condemned prisoners were involved in crimes of murder, rape and terrorism offence (MC) and were hanged in different jails across the province in 2018 so far. The remaining 10 death row prisoners were hanged in 2017.

In 2018, the prisoners, who were hanged in different jails in Punjab, included M Latif and Ilyas from Attock jail, Asif from Rawalpindi jail, Zahid Iqbal from Faisalabad jail, Ramzan from Kasur jail, Shaukat from Lahore, Manzoor Ahmad, Abdul Rehman and Riaz Bhatti from Faisalabad jail, Muhammad Tahir from Sahiwal jail, Nasir Abbas from Jhang jail and Sher Ali from Bahawalpur.

In 2017, the death row prisoners were hanged in different jails of Punjab, included Tariq Iqbal from Multan jail, Shamshad from Faisalabad jail, Yaqoob, Ghulam Rasool and Imran, who were hanged on same day, at Sargodha jail. The executed prisoners included Qaisar Shah from Gujranwala, Dr Usman, involved in blast, was from Faisalabad jail. Hardcore terrorists, including Qaisar Khan, Muhammad Umar and other were also hanged. Barkat Ali, Muhammad Adil and another hardcore terrorist were hanged in Rawalpindi, Hazoor Bakhsh from Dera Ghazi Khan jail, Ilyas from Faisalabad jail, Fazal Haq and Shahid Umar from Sahiwal jail, Gulzar from Gujranwala, Muhammad Zaman, Shawaly and Said from Sahiwal, Mansha and Salman from Lahore and Naveed Hussain from Adiala were hanged.