Murderer to be hanged in Haripur jail next week

His clemency appeals had been turned down by the president after SC, PHC upheld lower court’s verdict

HARIPUR: Authorities at the Haripur Central Jail are expected to execute a condemned prisoner next week, officials said on Saturday.

The prisoner has been on death row since 2008.

Authorities said that Amir Bahadur, a resident of Nowshera, had been convicted of murder and had been sentenced to death by a Nowshera district and sessions court in 2008.

However, he was later shifted to Haripur jail after capital punishment was announced. He has been on death row in Haripur jail ever since.

Bahadur had challenged his conviction in the Peshawar High Court and later in the Supreme Court. However, both upheld the verdict of the sessions court. Subsequently, his mercy petition was also turned down by the president
of Pakistan.

Officials at the Haripur jail said that black warrants for his execution had been issued by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa home department in the first week of March was subsequently confirmed on March 22, fixing his execution for March 28.

The condemned prisoner is expected to have a final meeting with his family on the eve of his execution in Haripur jail.

Ever since gallows were built in the jail in 2015, four prisoners have been executed at so far. The last execution at the prison was on April 14, 2016, when murder convict Imtiaz Ahmed from Mansehra was hanged.

Currently, there are around 120 prisoners, including a woman, on death row at the Haripur Central Jail. Of these, 35 have exhausted all  forums of appeals and their black warrants could be issued at any moment.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2017.