FAISALABAD, Nov 30: Six family members, including a man and his son, were hanged in the district jail in the early hours of Wednesday. Muhammad Ilyas (45), Muhammad Anwar (25) and Manzoor Ahmed (70) were hanged first while Muhammad Ishaq (33), Jawed Iqbal (28) and Ghulam Mustafa (39) were led to the gallows for hanging half-an-hour later.

Bodies of all the six were handed over to their relatives who took them to their native Kuriwala village in the limits of Nishatabad police station. Later, they buried them in the presence of a large number of people.

As to their last wish, all the condemned prisoners asked their relatives to remain calm and pray to Almighty Allah for them. However, some of the condemned prisoners described themselves as innocent. They claimed that the real culprits of the triple murder were still at large.

Meanwhile, no member from the deceased families had been present in their houses for the last three days as they have gone underground to avoid the wrath of the two proclaimed offenders and other family members of the six condemned prisoners.

Notables of Nishatabad, including parliamentarians from both opposition and treasury benches, have tried their best for a patch-up by paying diyat, but the victim family refused to forgive the murderers.

Eight people — Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Anwar, Manzoor Ahmed Muhammad Ishaq, Jawed Iqbal, Ghulam Mustafa, Ashfaq and Tahir had murdered Maqbool Ahmed, Najeebullah and Ghulam Ali over an old enmity in Nishatabad in 1989.

Six of the assailants had been rounded up while accused Ashfaq and Tahir had been declared POs.

The local sessions court had handed down death sentence to all the six accused. The Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the decision while the president had also rejected their mercy appeal.

However, the president had deferred their execution three times to help their relatives seek pardon from the aggrieved party.