The three killers had murdered a trader on August 17, 2010, after they had kidnapped him for ransom.
The trader was murdered despite his family paying Rs10 million in ransom. The kidnappers reportedly killed the hostage in fear of getting caught.
Businessmen in the city are often targeted by extortionists while police response to such incidents is far from satisfactory.
Death penalty
No execution has been carried out in Pakistan since 2008 except one when a convict was executed on November 14, 2012, under the orders of a military court.
The last government of Pakistan Peoples Party – through a moratorium – had stopped executions under death penalty.
Recently, the federal government had claimed that there are 547 persons on death row in the country – a figure strongly contested by human rights organisations.
Of these prisoners, 63 were awarded death sentences on their involvement in terrorist activities.
These numbers are, however, disputed. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in September last year had quoted that there were more than 8,000 convicts on death row in the country. Of these, 450 were awaiting execution by August 2013.
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