MUZAFFARABAD: Two death row inmates will be sent to the gallows in the Mirpur district jail on Friday morning, in what will be the first executions in more than a decade at the prison.

Riaz, son of Zafar Ali, and Mohammad Fayaz, son of Sharif, residents of a village near Sara-i-Alamgir, in Gujrat district, will be hanged at 6:30am, according to Jail Superintendent Irshad Hussain Jaral, who told Dawn that all arrangements had been finalised in this regard.

The two were sentenced to death by the AJK Shariat Court for killing the son of Fazal Rabbani, the Advocate General of Azad Kashmir, in 2004 during a robbery in his home in Mirpur.

After the AJK Supreme Court upheld their punishment in 2012, their mercy petition was rejected by the president. However, before black warrants could be issued, they filed a reference in the Supreme Court for review of the judgment, which was also turned down.

The ‘review mercy petition’ was also dismissed but when the black warrants were issued, the president gave the convicts a reprieve for 10 days so that they could attempt to strike a deal with the family of the deceased.

In January 2013, black warrants were issued for the second time, but the executions were again held in abeyance by the president, citing the moratorium on capital punishment in Pakistan.

It was only after the lifting of the moratorium late last year that the jail authorities geared themselves up for the executions.

Mr Jaral said the last time anyone had been hanged in the prison was back in 2004.

Published in Dawn February 13th , 2015

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