Punjab

Dark times: Twenty convicts on death row to be executed today

A total of 30 prisoners will be executed in three days.

Our Correspondents April 20, 2015

A total of 30 prisoners will be executed in three days. PHOTO: AFP

BAHAWALPUR/ SIALKOT/ ISLAMABAD: Twenty prisoners on death row in prisons across the Punjab will be executed on Tuesday (today). Another 10 will be hanged on Wednesday and Thursday.

Never before in Pakistan’s history have so many criminals in the province been executed, Prisons Inspector General Mian Farooq Nazeer said.

He said 75 prisoners have been executed since the moratorium on executions was lifted on December 17, last year.

Eight prisoners will be sent to the gallows on April 22 and two on April 23.

Nazeer said all jail superintendents have been directed to make necessary arrangements for the executions. He said these were convicts who had been awarded capital punishment by trial courts and their appeals and mercy petitions had been rejected.

Two men convicted of rape will be hanged at Sialkot District Jail on Tuesday (today). The men were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl on May 6, 1999. An anti-terrorism court issued black warrants for Nauman and Saleem after appeals for clemency were rejected by the Supreme Court and the president.

Separately, two other men convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl on August 29, 1997 in Sambrial will be hanged on Wednesday. An anti-terrorism court had sentenced them to death on June 24, 1998. Sialkot district jail officials said arrangements for the hangings had been completed.

In Bahawalpur, Shahmeer Ahmad will be hanged at 5am on Tuesday. He had killed a security guard during a bank robbery in 2006. Aslam Magsi, a murder convict, was supposed to be hanged on Tuesday but his orders for execution have been postponed for seven days by Lahore High Court’s Bahawalpur bench.

On Tuesday (today), three convicts will be executed at Gujranwala Central Jail; two at Lahore Central Jail; two at Sahiwal District Jail; two at Sahiwal Central Jail; three at Rawalpindi Central Jail; three at Faisalabad District Jail; one at Faisalabad Central Jail; one at Multan Central Jail; two at Bahawalpur District Jail; and one at Gujrat District Jail.

On Wednesday, two convicts will be hanged at Lahore Central Jail; three at Sahiwal Central Jail; one at Bahawalpur District Jail; and two at Sialkot Central Jail.

On Thursday, a convict at Sahiwal Central Jail and a convict at Sargodha Central Jail will be hanged.

While briefing the DIG, Senior Jail Superintendent Malik Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said the convicts had been allowed a one last meeting with their families. He said wills, if any, were to be recorded in the presence of a magistrate and a jail doctor would conduct their medical examination prior to the hanging. Later, the bodies will be handed over to the families.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2015.

COMMENTS (2)

Samar Javed | 9 years ago | Reply If this is dark time, then dec 16 was the darkest time....

intellectual.pseudo | 9 years ago | Reply What do you mean by dark times ? Liberal Fascists eh? A court of law has handed down the punishment, who are you to object it ET? Do you feel the pain of those who have been wronged? Like the guard murdered in a bank robbery ? or the 16 year old young girl that got raped? Don't add insult to their injuries by supporting pseudo human right organizations. Where were these organizations when 2000+ people mostly women and children were massacred in what is known as a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza strip by the Israelis.

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