Murder convict hanged in Haripur jail

HARIPUR: A murder convict was hanged amid tight security in Haripur central jail on Tuesday. On death row since 2008, Bahadur’s black warrants were issued on March 22.

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.

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.

The convict was allowed a last meeting with his family on Monday.

At 5.30 on Tuesday morning, Bahadur was as per court orders, “hanged by neck till death.”

The executioner had been called in from Peshawar Central Jail, as there is no official executioner in the Haripur district. During the execution, Civil Judge Aftab Iqbal, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, Dr Muhammad Ayaz, and Jail Superintendent Abdul Qayum Khan and his subordinate staff was in attendance.

According to jail authorities, there are now 119 condemned prisoners including a woman lodged in the death row of Haripur jail, 15 of who have lost their appeals to the Supreme Court. Their mercy petitions to the president are pending.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2017.