Pakistan hangs seven more convicts

ISLAMABAD: Seven more convicts were hanged in Pakistan on Tuesday taking the total number of executions to 17 since December last year, a media report said.

The hangings took place in Karachi, Sukkur, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi jails, Dawn online reported.

The executed terrorists were Behram Khan, Shahid Haneef, Muhammad Talha, Khaleel Ahmed, Zulfikar Ali, Mushtaq Ahmed and Nawazish Ali.

Behram Khan was found guilty of killing an advocate in a courtroom of the Sindh high court in April 2003.

Shahid Haneef, Muhammad Talha and Khaleel Ahmed were found guilty by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi of killing a senior officer in the defence ministry in July 2001.

Zulfikar Ali was associated with al-Qaida and was convicted of killing two policemen near the US Consulate General in Karachi.

Mushtaq Ahmed and Nawazish Ali were executed for their involvement in a 2003 attempt to kill then president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.

On December 17, Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases following a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014 in which Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants killed over 140 people, mostly children.

Pakistan has now executed 17 terrorists since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted.