Pakistan

Family buries Shafqat Hussain in hometown

Harrowing scenes as grieving family members come to terms with Shafqat's death

Afp August 05, 2015

1. Relatives of convicted murderer Shafqat Hussain react during his funeral in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir on August 5, 2015. PHOTO: AFP

MUZAFFARABAD: Shafqat Hussain, who was controversially hanged for a crime that his supporters say was committed when he was a juvenile, was buried Wednesday amid emotional scenes.

Hussain was hanged on Tuesday for killing a seven-year-old boy in Karachi in 2004 despite claims he was under 18 at the time and was tortured into confessing.

A government-ordered probe to determine Hussain’s age, carried out by the Federal Investigation Agency, ruled he was an adult at the time of his conviction.

Read: Shafqat Hussain hanged in Karachi Central Jail

At the burial in his native Kashmir, attended by around 400 people, his mother Makhni Begum had to be dragged away from his coffin as it was taken to be interred. "Please don't take him away, he has been far from me for too long, please let me be with him," she cried. His father, who is paralysed, fell on the coffin weeping and kissing it until he too had to be dragged off, while Hussain's sister collapsed, overcome with emotion. "I curse myself, I curse my poverty which cost me the life of my son. I wish I was wealthy enough to buy justice," Begum told AFP.

Relatives and local residents offer funeral prayers for the convicted murderer Shafqat Hussain at his funeral in Muzaffarabad on August 5, 2015. PHOTO: AFP

Read: ATC issues Shafqat Hussain's death warrants for fifth time

Pakistani and international rights campaigners took up Hussain's case, pushing hard for months for his sentence to be commuted but to no avail. United Nations rights experts said his trial "fell short of international standards", while Amnesty International accused the government of "callous indifference" to human life.

Pakistan has hanged around 180 convicts since ending a six-year moratorium on executions last December. Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.

Supporters argue that the death penalty is the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy in the country. But critics say the legal system is unjust, with rampant police torture, poor representation for victims and unfair trials.