KARACHI: An antiterrorism court issued on Saturday black warrants for the execution of two militants of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi on Feb 3 in a doctor’s killing case.
The two LJ militants — Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif — were sentenced to death by an ATC in July 2004 on charges of killing Dr Ali Raza Peerani on sectarian grounds in June 2001 in the Soldier Bazaar area.
Read: Nawaz removes moratorium on death penalty
The superintendent of the Karachi central prison informed the ATC-V through a letter that the appeals of the convicts had already been dismissed by the higher and superior judiciary and a review petition had also recently been turned down by the apex court.
The mercy petition of the death-row prisoners was rejected by the president.
He submitted that previous death warrants were suspended by the high court on technical grounds and asked the trial court to issue fresh black warrants for their execution.
Judge Mohammad Javed Alam of the ATC-V issued the black warrants for the condemned prisoners and directed the jail superintendent to hang them till death on Feb 3 at 6:30am.
The court also asked the jail authorities to carry out the execution under the supervision of the area magistrate after fulfilling legal formalities.
Both condemned prisoners have been dodging death for the last many years since implementation on their black warrants, repeatedly issued by the trial court, was stayed as the Pakistan Peoples Party government had placed a moratorium on executions after coming into power in 2008. However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government lifted it on Dec 17, 2014 in the wake of the Peshawar school carnage.
On Dec 20, the trial court had also issued their black warrants, but the high court suspended the same for not being in accordance with the amended rules.
Dr Peerani was killed by armed motorcyclists in a targeted attack on sectarian grounds when he came out of his clinic in Soldier Bazaar and was about to leave in his car. The wounded doctor was rushed to a hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. Both the condemned prisoners were shifted to Sukkur in 2012 due to security concerns.
However, the convicts are said to have recently been shifted back to the Karachi central prison.
Published in Dawn January 25th , 2015
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