MULTAN: Two death row prisoners convicted of murder were hanged to death in Multan Central Jail on Monday — the latest executions as the federal government’s month-long moratorium on executions expired with the end of Ramazan.

Inmate Farooq Babar had been found guilty of killing a man in 1998 after he failed to return an amount of borrowed money.

Another prisoner, Karim Nawaz, was convicted of murdering a man over an old feud.

“Two prisoners, Farooq alias Farooqa and Karim Nawaz, who had been awarded capital punishment, have been hanged in central jail in Multan today,” Chaudhry Arshad Saeed, a senior government advisor for prisons in Punjab told AFP.

“Both of these convicts were awaiting the death penalty for murdering people in separate cases. They have been executed today after resumption of hangings following a temporary moratorium because of Ramazan,” he said.

Another senior official of the prisons department who is responsible for all operations confirmed the hangings.

The mercy petitions of both convicts were turned down by the president of Pakistan.

Also read: Resumption of executions

Executions of convicted prisoners had been suspended by the federal government on June 13 in respect of the holy month of Ramazan, with these to be resumed after Eidul Fitr.

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 Army Public School in Peshawar, which claimed 141 lives, most of them children.

Later, the government reinstated capital punishment for all offences that entail the death penalty.

Official sources earlier told Dawn that 120 convicts in heinous crimes and 15 convicts in terrorism cases have been hanged till death in Punjab under the National Action Plan (NAP) developed this year in the aftermath of the APS attack.

The European Union (EU) has been asking Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium on death penalty and fully respect all of its international obligations.

Rights activists in Pakistan too have been opposing the death penalty especially under the NAP, asking it to re-introduce the moratorium announced in 2008.

Know more: Pakistan should reverse lifting of moratorium on death penalty: HRW

Some 8,000 convicted prisoners are on death row in various jails across the country.