LeJ co-founder dodges death at the eleventh hour

Convict's family come to a deal with victim's relatives

LAHORE: The Punjab authorities on Thursday cancelled the hanging of a convicted sectarian militant after the victim's family pardoned him, officials and a family member said. 

The case is seen as a test of the government's plan to execute convicted terrorists in the aftermath of a school massacre that claimed 150 lives in the country's deadliest terror attack

Ikramul Haq, a co-founder of banned Sunni militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), was sentenced to death by an anti-terror court in 2004 for killing a Shia Muslim in 2001.

Haq is popularly known as Akram Lahori and also has another alias Muhammad Ajmal.


The co-founder was set to be hanged in Lahore on early Thursday but his family came to a deal with the victim's relatives on Wednesday night, Haq's lawyer, Ghulam Mustafa Mangan, told AFP.

"The hanging was cancelled after we reached a compromise with the complainant's family. They have pardoned my client," Mangan said, without giving further details of the deal.

Murder can be forgiven under law in exchange for blood money, while rival militant groups may choose to pardon each others' convicted killers.

Ehsanul Haq, brother of Ikramul Haq, confirmed the cancellation of hanging.

A senior prison official also confirmed the move, adding: "A magistrate has recorded the statements and the execution has been stayed. Now the court will decide whether the person (should) be acquitted or not."

The government lifted a six-year moratorium, last month, on the death penalty in terror cases in the wake of the Taliban's horrific massacre at an army-run school in the city of Peshawar, and has so far executed nine people.

The attack on December 16 left 150 people dead, the vast majority of them children.

Pakistani officials said they plan to hang 500 convicts in the coming weeks, drawing protest from international human rights campaigners.