KARACHI: Twelve murder convicts will be sent to gallows early Wednesday at different jails across Pakistan – the latest executions since the country resumed the death penalty for all capital crimes.
The scheduled hangings come after 12 death row prisoners were executed on Thursday, which marked the largest number executions in a single day since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.
Four convicted murderers are scheduled to be hanged early Wednesday morning at the Adiyala jail in Rawalpindi.
The appeals and mercy pleas of Shaukat Ali, Mohammad Shabbir, Talib Hussain and Rab Nawaz have already been turned down by the higher courts and the president.
Meanwhile, the execution orders of convicted murderer Qadeer Ahmed were stayed following a last-minute reprieve.
Ghulam Mohammad, sentenced to death for killing his brother-in-law in August 2000, will be sent to the gallows along with convicted murderer Zakir Hussain at the District Jail Jhang.
Black warrants for murder convict Ahmed Nawaz have also been received at the Central jail Mianwali. Nawaz was sentenced to be hanged for killing a man in 1998 over a personal feud.
Authorities at the district jail Faisalabad said two death row convicts will be hanged till death at 5:30am Wednesday morning. The prisoners, Shafaqat Ali and Mohammad Saeed, were convicted of killing two brothers in March 1998.
At the Gujrat District Jail, two murder convicts will be sent to gallows early Wednesday morning.
Courts had sentenced Azhar Mahood to death for killing a lawyer in 1990, while Mohammad Zaman was convicted of committing murder during a robbery bid in the year 2000.
Death row prisoner Asad Khan was sentenced to death for committing five murders in two separate incidents.
Khan will be hanged at the Jauharabad district jail in Sargodha.
A total of 39 people have so far been hanged since the government restarted executions in December.
Reintroducing the death penalty was part of the government's move to step up its fight against militants and criminals after Taliban militants killed over 150 people – mostly children – at Peshawar's Army Public School on Dec 16.
The death penalty moratorium, in force since 2008, was initially lifted only in terrorism cases.
But the government extended the order earlier this month, directing provincial governments to proceed with hangings for all death row prisoners who had exhausted their appeals and clemency petitions.
Rights groups estimate that Pakistan has over 8,000 death-row prisoners, a majority of whom have exhausted their appeals.
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