Activist to be hanged tomorrow

Published January 21, 2002

MULTAN, Jan 20: An activist of a banned extremist organization, convicted of killing two policemen, will be executed on Tuesday after President Pervez Musharraf rejected his mercy petition, police said.

Shaukat Hayat, 38, an activist of Lashkar-i-Taiba, gunned down two police constables at a checkpost in Multan in 1994 when they tried to stop him while he was riding a stolen motorbike, Multan jail Superintendent Mahmood Akbar told AFP on Sunday.

He was sentenced to death twice by an anti-terrorism court in April 1996, Akbar said, adding Hayat had unsuccessfully challenged the conviction in the superior courts.

“Hayat later moved a clemency appeal but it was turned down by the president last week.”

The authorities have issued his death warrant and Hayat will be hanged in the Multan jail on Tuesday.