ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) finalised arrangements on Thursday night for handing over to Russian embassy body of a Russian citizen who was hanged in Faisalabad.

Akhlas Akhlaque, who also had citizenship of Pakistan, had been sentenced to death for involvement in an attack on former president Pervez Musharraf. He was executed on Sunday.

The Russian government repeatedly approached Pakistani authorities with a plea to reconsider the death sentence handed down to him, said a statement by its embassy.

Pakistan, however, tur­ned down the request for postponement of the execution.

“It is regrettable that the Pakistani side did not respond to our repeated app­eals to commute Akhlaque’s sentence on humanitarian grounds. It should also be noted that the Pakistani authorities did not officially inform the Embassy of Russia in Islamabad about the decision to carry out the sentence,” the statement said.

A Pims official said the body was moved by law-enforcement personnel to the hospital on Tuesday but for some reason they later took it away.

“The body was again brought to Pims and instructions were issued that it should be readied for handing over to the Russian embassy because it was to be sent to Russia,” he said.

“The body was moved to the mortuary where it was put in a special bag in preparation for the long travel,” he added.

Pims chief Dr Javed Akram confirmed that arrangements had been finalised for handing over the body to the Russian embassy.

Answering a question, Dr Akram said the Pims management had not been asked to carry out autopsy.

The corpse is likely to be sent to Russia on Friday.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2014