PESHAWAR, Dec 2: An 80-year-old condemned prisoner was hanged inside the central prison on Tuesday morning. The body of Qadeem Khan was handed over to his relatives against his will and was later buried in Nowshera.

Judicial magistrate Asghar Shah Khilji administered the execution carried out at 6.30am in presence of the jail staff, prisoners and a doctor.

Earlier, the execution was twice postponed on the orders of the president of Pakistan as Qadeem’s relatives were engaged in efforts aimed at convincing the family of the killed person, Jamshed, for a compromise. However, Jamshed’s family refused to forgive Qadeem despite appeals by different Jirgas.

In his last will, Qadeem asked the jail superintendent not to hand over his body to his relatives and should be buried on the jail premises.

Prison authorities said the will could not be fulfilled as a prisoner could not be buried on the jail premises.

Qadeem killed Jamshed, a resident of Hotikhel locality, at a Nowshera bazaar on Sept 7, 1988, in a dispute over dogfight and pigeon flying. Before dying, Jamshed stated that when he arrived at the bazaar, Qadeem exchanged hot words with him and fired at him.

On June 30, 1991, an additional district and sessions judge at Nowshera convicted Qadeem and sentenced him to death. His appeal was accepted by a division bench of the Peshawar High Court in 1992. However, in 1993 the Supreme Court accepted the appeal of Jamshed’s family and upheld the death sentence. Qadeem’s review petition was also dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Qadeem sent a mercy petition to the president which was also dismissed.