Pakistan resumes executions after Ramadan break: Official
Pakistan has resumed the executions of those convicted of capital crimes by hanging two murder convicts after a one-month halt in observance of religious considerations in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which concluded last week.
“Two prisoners, Farooq alias Farooqa and Karim Nawaz, who had been awarded capital punishment, have been hanged in central jail in Multan today,” senior government adviser for prisons in Punjab Province, Chaudhry Arshad Saeed, said on Monday.
“Both of these convicts were awaiting the death penalty for murdering people in separate cases. They have been executed today after resumption of hangings following a temporary moratorium because of Ramadan,” added Saeed.
The early morning executions in the central city of Multan brought the total number of convicts hanged since December 2014 – when Pakistan ended a moratorium on the death penalty – to 176, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Pakistan, the report said, ended the moratorium on the death penalty after Taliban militants massacred more than 150 people – mostly children – at a school in the city of Peshawar in December last year in what was reportedly the country’s deadliest ever terrorist attack.
The death penalty was originally reserved for terror convicts but was later expanded in March to include all capital crimes.
Meanwhile, among the murder convicts currently awaiting execution are Shafqat Hussain, whose case has drawn international criticism since his family and defense attorneys have alleged that he was under 18 at the time of committing a murder, also claiming that he was tortured into confessing.
According to estimates released by the UK-based rights group Amnesty International, Pakistan has more than 8,000 inmates on death row, most of whom have exhausted their appeals.
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