Islamabad:Pakistan today hanged four death
row prisoners, including two brothers, while postponed the
execution of a man whose family alleged he was 14 at the time
of crime and his confession was extracted through torture.
Three prisoners were executed in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail
while another was hanged to death in Mianwali jail.
The two brothers - Mohammad Asghar and Ghulam Mohammad -
had been awarded the death penalty by a district and sessions
judge for killing two of their relatives in 1996. Third person
Gulistan Zaman was hanged for killing a man in 1998.
Another death row convict, Abdul Sattar, was executed in
Mianwali Jail. Sattar was sentenced to death for killing a man
over a personal feud in 1992.
The execution of four death row prisoners took the number
of prisoners hanged across the country to 54, after the deadly
Taliban attack on an army run school on December 16, 2014.
Meanwhile, the execution of Shafqat Hussain has been
postponed for 72 hours just a few hours before his hanging was
scheduled to take place this morning.
Hussain was convicted by an anti-terrorism court for
kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old body.
Rights bodies allege that Hussain was just 14 at the time
of crime in 2004 and he was tortured to confess the killing,
while the jail record showed him as 23.
His family has urged the President to postpone the
hanging who in an overnight decision delayed the execution for
72 hours to let the authorities investigate the allegations,
an official of interior ministry said.
Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that he
would ask the government to postpone his death if any credible
document was provided to prove that Hussain was a minor at the
time of conviction.
Under Pakistan laws, anyone below 18 years can be given
maximum life imprisonment. There are more than 8,000 death row
prisoners in the country.
Initially executions were limited to terrorism offences
but on March 10 government decided to all capital offences.
