PAKISTAN: TWELVE MURDER CONVICTS EXECUTED IN VARIOUS JAILS

March 17, 2015: Pakistan hanged at least twelve convicted murderers at seven different jails across the country, the highest number in a single day after the government lifted a six-year-old moratorium on capital punishment.
The latest hangings bring to 39 the number of convicts put to death since Pakistan resumed executions in December after Taliban militants gunned down 154 people, most of them children, at a military-run school in Peshawar.
Two death row prisoners – Malik Muhammad Nadeem Zaman and Muhammad Jawed – were sent to gallows at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Zaman had killed his father, two sisters and a nephew in 1998, while Jawed had murdered one of his female cousins in 1997.
Murder convicts Mohammad Afzal and Mohammad Faisal were executed at the Central Jail in Karachi. They were found guilty of killing a man, Abdul Jabbar, during a robbery bid in Karachi's Korangi area in 1998.
Three murderers – Mubashir Abbas, Muhammed Sharif and Muhammad Riaz – were executed in Jhang’s District Jail. Riaz had killed a relative in 1995 during a domestic dispute, while Mubashir and Sharif had kidnapped and murdered a taxi-driver during a robbery bid in 1998.
Zafar Iqbal was hanged at the Multan Central Jail for sexually abusing and killing a six-year-old girl in 1996.
A convicted killer, Muhammed Iqbal, was hanged in Gujranwala’s Central Jail. He had killed his close relative during a family dispute in 1996.
Prison authorities at the District Jail of Mianwali hanged murder convicts Zafar Iqbal and Rab Nawaz. Iqbal had killed his father in 2003, while Nawaz had murdered a woman in the year 2000.
Another prisoner, Muhammad Nawaz, was hanged in Faisalabad’s Central Jail. He murdered two relatives, Manzoor and Maqsood, over a minor dispute regarding water irrigation in Sangla Hill in 1992.
The executions were among 14 death sentences scheduled to be carried out on the same day. However, two execution orders were stayed in Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan. Among the orders stayed was that of robbery and murder convict Waqar Nazir, who was pardoned by the victims family shortly before the execution was about to take place. Waqar had killed Taufeeq in Multan in 1996. Another death sentence was halted at the central jail in Dera Ghazi Khan after the victim's family pardoned murder convict Asghar Ali, who had killed his nephew in 2000 over a domestic dispute. (Sources: AFP/SAMAA/dawn.com/Dunya News, 17/03/2015)