Verdict: Two LeJ militants to be hanged in Karachi today

ATC-V upholds its decision to execute them after petition to suspend execution orders

KARACHI: Two condemned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants are to be hanged at the Karachi Central Jail today (Tuesday) as an anti-terrorism court (ATC) upheld on Monday its decision to execute them.

ATC-V, which issued black warrants for Attaullah alias Qasim and Muhammas Azam alias Sharif, was pleaded by their counsel to suspend the execution orders as jail authorities did not comply with the Sindh High Court's (SHC) December 22 ruling regarding fulfilment of legal formalities.

The counsel contended that the death row prisoners were shifted from Sukkur to Karachi three days ago instead of two weeks prior to the execution date, in accordance with the rules.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Javed Alam remarked that the SHC order was not directed towards transferring the inmates but only towards the procedure to be followed for the executions. He said that the hanging order would not be suspended as the rules had not been violated.

The court had issued black warrants for Attaullah and Azam on January 24. It was the second time that their death warrants had been issued.

The jail superintendent confirmed to The Express Tribune that the two prisoners will be hanged in the presence of the area's judicial magistrate at 6:30am today.

Attaullah and Azam were sentenced to death by an ATC in 2004 for killing a doctor, Ali Raza Pirani, on sectarian grounds in Soldier Bazaar area in 2001. They were booked under Sections 302 (murder), 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

Twenty prisoners have been hanged since the federal government lifted the moratorium on capital punishment in the wake of the Peshawar school attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2015.