Four death-row terrorists were executed on Sunday in Pakistan for attacking former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf 11 years back, taking the number of hanged prisoners to six, days after the country lifted a ban on the death penalty following last week’s deadly Taliban attack on a Peshawar school.
Zubair Ahmed, Rasheed Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Russian citizen Akhlaque Ahmed were hanged at the district jail in Faisalabad in Punjab province, two days after two prisoners were hanged in the same jail.
The four death-row prisoners were shifted to the district jail under the security of army personnel because the lever used to open the trapdoor to carryout hangings was not available in the central jail in Faisalabad.
Family members of the prisoners were allowed to meet the convicts for the last time prior to the hanging.
Security was tightened in the city to avoid any untoward incident.
Additional contingents of security personnel were deployed while containers and barricades were placed on the routes leading to the district jail.
Preparations were also underway in lahore for the execution of four death row prisoners in Kot lakhpat Central Jail. The executions are expected to be carried out within the next 24-36 hours. All routes leading to the jail were sealed with the deployment of military personnel and installation of cellphone jammers around the jail premises.
In Sukkur, authorities called in the relatives of two terrorists, belonging to the banned lashkar-i-Jhangvi who had been sentenced to death 10 years ago in a sectarian killing case, to hold a final meeting on Monday.
An anti-terrorism court on Friday had issued death warrants for Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif, who had been sentenced to death for a sectarian killing in 2001.
Both terrorists were arrested from Karachi and are to be executed on Tuesday.
Earlier on Friday, two former military men were executed in the Faisalabad district jail. Usman, a former soldier of the Army’s medical corps, was executed for an attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009.
Arshad Mehmood, a trooper, was also hanged and was among five convicts who were sentenced to death for their role in an al-Qaeda-inspired assassination attempt on Musharraf’s life in late 2003.
The hangings on Friday were the first death sentences carried out after the Government ended a six-year moratorium on executions in terrorism-related cases on Wednesday, after the suicide attack on a Peshawar Army school that killed 148 people, mostly children.
Pak varsity closed for security reasons
Islamabad: Pakistan’s prestigious Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) here has been closed for indefinite period due to security concerns. A spokesman of the QAU said the university has been closed for an indefinite period, Dawn reported on Sunday. He, however, said the administrative office of the university would remain open for processing admissions for spring 2015. Majority of the educational institutions have been closed as annual winter vacation was announced from December 20 and due to security concerns in the wake of the Peshawar school massacre and the decision of the Pakistan’s Government to restore capital punishment.
security forces nab over 300 terror suspects
Islamabad: Pakistan’s security forces have arrested more than 300 terror suspects, including foreigners, in a crackdown against militants in the capital Islamabad. Pakistan has launched countrywide crackdown on militants after the Peshawar school massacre which killed 148 people, most of them students, last week. Six teams of sniffer dogs, armed personnel carriers, bomb disposal squads and commandos participated in the operations in the capital on Saturday, the Dawn reported. Officials of Capital Territory Police, Pakistan Rangers, and intelligence agencies also recovered arms and ammunition.
Taliban kill 7 Afghan policemen at checkpoint
Kabul: The Taliban attacked a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan, killing at least seven policemen, an official said on Sunday. In Kabul, a reporter wounded in an attack earlier this month on a French-run school died of his injuries. The checkpoint attack took place in Jawzjan province, said Abdul Manan Raoufi, the region’s police operational chief. Along with the seven killed, five other policemen were wounded in the attack late Saturday in a village in the province’s Qashtepa district.
Taliban chief accused in Karachi airport attack
Karachi: The Pakistan Government has named the chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), its spokesman and six others as the main accused in the terrorist attack on the Karachi airport in June. An anti-terrorism court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah, spokesman Shahidullah Shahid and six other militants. ATC judge in Karachi, Bashir Ahmed Khoso issued the non-bailable warrants for the absconders and asked the investigating officer to arrest and produce them in court by January 8 after the inquiry team submitted its investigation report before the court.