Five prisoners hanged in Punjab jails
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RAWALPINDI/FAISALABAD/GUJRANWALA: Five more death row prisoners were executed in various jails across the Punjab province on Thursday morning while the execution of two convicts was halted.
With the recent hangings, so far 71 convicts have been hanged across the country, after the deadly attack on the Army Public School on December 16, 2014.
Rawalpindi
Two convicts Qaiser and Majid were hanged to death in Adiala Jail Rawalpindi last night.
Qaiser was accused of murdering a colleague and was awarded sentence by a court.
An anti terrorism court (ATC) had awarded death sentence to convict Majid for killing six people in Wah Cantt.
Both convicts hailed from Rawalpindi Division.
Gujranwala
Two death row inmates were executed in Gujranwala Central Jail.
Convict Abdul Jabbar was found to have murdered a person in 2001 by a court. Prisoner Aijaz was awarded death sentence for killing a person in 1995.
Faisalabad
Convict Zafar Iqbal was hanged to death in Faisalabad Central Jail. The inmate was accused of murdering a woman who resisted during a robbery in 2005.
Hangings cancelled
Meanwhile hangings of two convicts Nizam Deen and Muhammad Hussain were cancelled after their heirs managed to produce agreements between the plaintiffs and defending parties, before the jail authorities
The ruling PML-N government had lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism related cases in the wake of a Taliban attack at the APS Peshawar, which claimed 141 lives, most of them children.
Later, the government completely reinstated capital punishment for all offences that entail the death penalty.
Know more: Pakistan should reverse lifting of moratorium on death penalty: HRW
The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged the government to re-impose the moratorium on the death penalty.
Some 8,000 convicted prisoners are on death row in various jails across the country.
