ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Around 500 terror convicts will be hanged till death in various jails across Pakistan in coming weeks, the officials said on Monday.
“Interior ministry has finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place in coming weeks,” a senior government official told a foreign news agency.
The authorities have already executed six death-row convicts in Faisalabad district jail after they were found guilty of carrying out terror attacks.
On Friday night, two death row convicts Aqeel alias Dr Usman and Arshad Mehmood were hanged in Faisalabad jail.
Dr Usman was involved in the army’s General Headquarter (GHQ) attack which took place in October 2009 while Arshad Mehmood was executed for an assassination attempt on former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf
Later on Sunday afternoon, six more terror convicts including Ghulam Sarwar, Zubair Ahmed, Akhlas Ahmed and Rashid Tipu were hanged till death for their involvement in an attack on Pervez Musharraf.
The executions were carried out after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty a day after militants carried out the country’s bloodiest ever terror attack which claimed lives of over 130 school children in Peshawar.
Meanwhile, a government spokesman said that the prime minister has ordered the attorney general’s office to “actively pursue” capital cases currently in the courts.
“Prime Minister has also issued directions for appropriate measures for early disposal of pending cases related to terrorism,” the spokesman said.
