PAKISTAN: ANOTHER MILITANT HANGED, 20TH EXECUTION SINCE MORATORIUM LIFTED

January 17, 2015: Pakistan hanged a militant of a banned anti-Shiite outfit, bringing the number of executions in the country since the lifting of the moratorium on capital punishment to 20.
Ikramul Haq, alias Lahori, was hanged at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore after the court rejected the compromise reached by his family with the kin of the person he murdered.
Haq was linked to the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) militant group and was involved in the murder of a Shiite man, Nayyar Abbas, in 2001 in Shorkot area of Jhang, Punjab Province.
An anti-terrorism court in Faisalabad had awarded the death sentence to him in 2004 and his death warrant was issued on 6 January 2015, after President Mamnoon Hussain turned down his mercy appeal.
He was scheduled to be hanged on 8 January but the execution was delayed after a compromise with Abbas' family. Later, it emerged that out of eight family members of Abbas, only two of his brothers and a sister had made the agreement to pardon him. The court rejected the compromise and upheld its decision of death sentence to the convict. (Sources: PTI, 17/01/2014)