KARACHI: Two condemned prisoners belonging to the outlawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi were hanged at the Karachi central prison in the early hours of Tuesday.

Family members and friends of the two LJ men — Attaullah, alias Qasim, and Mohammad Azam, alias Sharif — received their bodies outside the prison. They chanted slogans and showered rose petals on the ambulances when they emerged from the penitentiary.

Later the bodies were buried in Korangi and Quaidabad areas.

Officials said that both convicts were hanged till death early before sunrise after the completion of required legal formalities.

Security had been beefed up in and around the central prison since Monday evening as a heavy contingent of police and Rangers was deployed outside the jail. A portion of University Road and Jail Road were also closed for vehicular traffic.

“Both were executed at around 6:30am,” said an official. “The due process was followed and they were hanged only after a nod from the medical team. It took an hour or so to complete the formalities to hand over the bodies to their families. A judicial magistrate supervised the entire process.”

Outside the prison, a large number of newsmen, security personnel, the convicts’ family members and friends were present.

The friends and family members shouted slogans and showered rose petals on the ambulances carrying bodies of the convicts when they came out of the prison after sunrise.

Both Attaullah and Azam were sentenced to death by an antiterrorism court in July 2004 for killing Dr Ali Raza Peerani on sectarian grounds in June 2001 in Soldier Bazaar.

Dr Peerani was targeted by armed motorcyclists when he came out of his clinic in Soldier Bazaar.

The appeals of the convicts against capital punishment were turned down by the apex court, while the president of Pakistan also dismissed their mercy petitions.

Black warrants for their execution were issued on Jan 24 on a request of the jail authorities. The trial court asked the jail officials to carry out the hanging under the supervision of a judicial magistrate on Feb 3 at 6:30am.

In 2012, they had to be shifted to the Sukkur prison from the Karachi jail due to security concerns. The jail authorities on a court order shifted them back to Karachi only a couple of days ago. Meanwhile, an application of the condemned prisoners seeking suspension of their death warrants was dismissed on Monday.

“Azam was a resident of Korangi 100 Quarters,” said a source. “He was buried in a Korangi graveyard after funeral prayers at an area mosque. The funeral was attended by family, relatives and friends. Everything went off peacefully as police were there for security.”

Similarly, he said, Ataullah was laid to rest in Zafar Town of Quaidabad. Funeral prayers were held on the main road outside an area mosque. The area police backed by Rangers had made security arrangements for the funeral, which ended peacefully after it was attended by a ‘moderate’ number of people, added the source.

Both condemned prisoners dodged death for many years since the implementation on their black warrants, repeatedly issued by the trial court, was stayed as the Pakistan Peoples Party government placed a moratorium on executions after coming into power in 2008. It was lifted on Dec 17, 2014 in the wake of the Peshawar school carnage. Before the Tuesday hangings, only two condemned prisoners, Behram Khan and Mohammad Saeed, had been executed at the Karachi central prison after the lifting of the moratorium.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2015

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