Two prisoners hanged in Machh, Bahawalpur

Published April 8, 2015
Sikander was hanged in Bahawalpur while Ameer Hamza was the first prisoner to be hanged in Balochistan in 7 years. —AP/File
Sikander was hanged in Bahawalpur while Ameer Hamza was the first prisoner to be hanged in Balochistan in 7 years. —AP/File

QUETTA/BAHAWALPUR: Two convicted murderers were hanged to death in Balochistan's Machh jail and Punjab's Bahawalpur Central Jail on Wednesday morning.

Death row prisoner Ameer Hamza, who was executed in Machh jail, was awarded death sentence by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Sibi in 2004.

Hamza was found guilty of killing a man over a minor dispute in 1995. His mercy appeal was turned down by President Mamnoon Hussain on March 30.

Hamza is reportedly the first prisoner to be hanged in Balochistan in the last seven years.

Another convicted murderer Sikander was hanged in Bahawalpur's Central Jail today.

A military court had awarded death sentence to Sikander through a court martial. Sikander, who hailed from Shaheed Benazirabad District in Sindh, had killed a colleague in Rawalpindi in 2002.

Pakistan had lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases on March 10.

Initially executions were resumed for terrorism offences only in the wake of a Taliban massacre at an army-run school in Peshawar which had claimed the lives of more than 150 persons, mostly schoolchildren, on December 16, 2014.

Take a look: Pakistan should reverse lifting of moratorium on death penalty: HRW

The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to re-impose its moratorium on the death penalty.

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