Pakistan executes 12 death row prisoners in single day
Pakistan has executed 12 prisoners charged with murder, making it the highest number of inmates to be put to death in a single day since Islamabad lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty.
Pakistani prison officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the executions were carried out earlier on Tuesday.
The officials said 10 of the convicts were executed in the town of Jhang in Punjab Province as well as the cities of Rawalpindi, Mianwali, Multan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad.
The remaining two were put to death in southern Karachi.
Punjab provincial Home Minister Shuja Khanzada said on Tuesday that more executions were expected to be carried out in the coming weeks.
The recent executions put at 39 the total number of people executed in Pakistan since the moratorium on the death sentences was lifted last December.
The ban was partially lifted last December to allow the execution of those convicted of terrorism offences. However, Islamabad extended the removal to all capital offences last week.
Pakistan’s decision to resume the execution of the convicts on death row came as its political and military leaders have vowed to wipe out homegrown pro-Taliban terrorism following a deadly pro-Taliban attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which claimed the lives of 149 people, including 133 children.
According to the UK-based human rights group, Amnesty International, Pakistan has some 8,000 prisoners on death row.
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