Pakistan hangs two terrorists

Islamabad: Two convicted terrorists were hanged till death in Pakistan Wednesday morning, media reported.

The latest executions have brought the number of those hanged until death to nine.

The executions started as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on capital punishment in the country in the aftermath of the Peshawar carnage that left some 150 people, most of them children, dead, Dawn online reported.

Prison officials had already received the death warrants for the two men a couple of days ago. The warrants were issued by anti-terrorism courts as mercy petitions of the convicts had been rejected by the president Monday.

The convicts: Ahmed Ali alias Sheshnag and Ghulam Shabbir alias Fauji alias doctor belonged to a banned organisation.

Ahmed Ali, a resident of Shorkot, Jhang district, was handed capital punishment for killing three men: Altaf Hussain, Mohammad Nasir and Mohammad Fiaz and injuring Mohammad Pervez and Mohammad Siddique on the Railway Road in 1998.

Ghulam Shabbir, a resident of Talamba area of Khanewal district killed Deputy Superintendent of Police Anwar Khan and his driver Ghulam Murtaza on the Bohar Gate Road Aug 4, 2000. Charges of sectarian violence were also proved against him.

He was sentenced to death by a special anti-terrorism court June 21, 2002, and the conviction was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Both convicted men were hanged at 6 a.m.

Earlier, strict security measures were taken around the jail precincts and the adjoining areas. Army personnel were deployed outside the jail, while elite force personnel were positioned inside the prison premises.

Following the removal of moratorium, President Mamnoon Hussain has turned down mercy appeals of 17 convicts for death penalty. Since then, nine prisoners have been executed.

After the moratorium was lifted, the first executions took place Dec 20, 2014. Aqeel alias doctor Usman and Arshad Mehmood were executed in Faisalabad on that day.

A couple of days later, Dec 22, 2014, four more convicts, Zubair Ahmed alias Tauseef, Ikhlas Ahmed alias Roosi, Ghulam Sarwar and Rashid Mehmood alias Teepu were also hanged at district jail in Faisalabad. All four militants were convicted of their involvement in an attack on former president Pervez Musharraf.

Later, Dec 31, 2014, Niaz Mohammad, a former Pakistan Air Force junior technician who was also convicted in the Pervez Musharraf assassination attempt case was executed at the Peshawar Central Prison.

Even now though, 7791 prisoners are on death row in the country.