PESHAWAR: The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has seven prisoners sentenced to death under the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) and are likely to be hanged after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on the death penalty.

Read: Nawaz removes moratorium on death penalty

Inspector General (IG) of KP prisons Kifayatullah Khan told Dawn that the total number of prisoners sentenced to death and are currently imprisoned, is 192, out of which six or seven are those who had been charged and punished under the ATA.

According to jail statistics, the total number of prisoners in KP jails is 8,955 with Haripur having the highest number with 1,941, Peshawar Central jail with 1,859, Bannu with 718 and Dera Ismail Khan with 340 prisoners.

The remaining prisoners are kept in other jails of the province.

Responding to a query about threats to jails in Peshawar after the school attack, the IG said that the execution of condemned prisoners was banned in 2008, "but we are progressing with the procedure as per new directives".

Regarding the links of prisoners to militant groups, Khan said that it was not the jail authority's mandate. However, those convicted under the ATA or charged under Articles 302 and 788 are applicable under terror charges.

Khan also remarked that security was on high alert following intelligence reports of looming threats.