HARIPUR: Two condemned prisoners were executed at Haripur Central Jail amid tight security in the wee hours on Tuesday, prison officials said.
One of the prisoners, Amanullah, was convicted of killing a woman lawyer and social activist, Naseema Bibi, on the premises of Dera Ismail Khan district courts. The other condemned prisoner, Jan Bahadur, had killed a person in Oct 1993 in Mardan district.
After exhausting all the forums of appeals the two convicts were allowed final meetings with their families on Sunday and Monday.
The bodies were later handed over to their families after completion of the due process.
On April 23, 2008, an additional district and sessions judge had convicted Amanullah in Peshawar. The Peshawar High Court and the Supreme Court had rejected his appeals against death penalty on May 4, 2010 and Nov 10, 2010, respectively.
Subsequently, his mercy petition was also rejected by the president of Pakistan.
Amanullah was taken into custody shortly after the murder. He later confessed to the crime in front of the trial court.
The convict had insisted the deceased was his wife but she was reluctant to declare that publicly and therefore, he killed her.
However, the claim was refuted by the deceased during her lifetime.
She had alleged that Amanullah was a blackmailer, who had been trying to grab her property.
The deceased had also filed cases of forgery and fraud against him in local courts besides challenging her ‘fake’ nikahnama which, she claimed, was prepared by Amanullah.
The Dera bar association had decided that none of its members would represent the suspect in the courts.
For the reason, the trial of the case was shifted to Peshawar on the high court’s orders.
The second convict Jan Bahadur was arrested in connection with a murder case registered at Takhtbhai police station, Mardan, on Oct 22, 1993.
He was sentenced to death by an additional district and sessions judge on April 7, 2000, at Takhtbhai. The judgment was upheld by the high court On March 12, 2002, and subsequently, the Supreme Court also upheld the verdict. His review and clemency petitions were also rejected.
He had also filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court recently requesting that his death penalty may be carried out through a less painful mode and not by hanging. A few days ago, the court had rejected his petition observing that the petitioner should have moved the Federal Shariat Court and not the high court.
WORKER ELECTROCUTED: A factory worker was electrocuted at a ghee factory in Hatar Industrial Zone on Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses and police said the victim, Shoaib, 23, of Kotli Nehr Hattar was working as welder in the factory.
On Monday evening, he was busy in welding on the rooftop of the factory when he touched an electric wire and fell to the ground. He was shifted to Kotnajibullah Rural Health Centre, where the doctors pronounced him dead.
Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018
