Pakistan on Tuesday hanged a convicted ‘teen’ killer after postponing his execution four times amid opposition from human rights and civil society groups, who later organised protest marches throughout the country.Shafqat Hussain, whose case sparked international outcry on the grounds that he was a juvenile at the time of crime in 2004, was executed in Karachi Central Prison in the wee hours.
Shortly after the news of the hanging spread human and civil right activists took out protest marches in Karachi, Islamabad and some other parts of the country protesting the execution.Gul Zaman, brother of Hussain, told PTI that his family had done their best to help his brother but all efforts failed.“I met my brother in jail and he was calm and composed and was praying all the time,” Zaman said.
Hussain, a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, was arrested and convicted in 2004 for the kidnapping and killing of a seven-year-old boy in Karachi. All of hia appeals were turned down.Initially he was scheduled to be hanged on January 14 but the execution was to be postponed as a controversy cropped up about his age.