Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday hanged four prisoners, convicted for involvement in attack on former President General Pervez Musharraf. Three other prisoners were hanged to death on Friday.
On December 18, Pakistan had lifted the moratorium on the death sentences and 17 of the 55 convicted terrorists whose mercy petitions have been dismissed would be executed in the few days, according to media reports.
There are at least 522 criminals sentenced to death in terror and other cases related to serious crimes in the country, including 11 who were convicted by a military court.
Punjab province has the highest number of death row convicts with 465, followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with 30, Sindh with 14 and Baluchistan with 13, the News reported.
The mercy appeals of 55 death row inmates have been dismissed by the Supreme Court and President Mamnoon Hussain.
Seventeen of them will be executed in a few days. "Their death warrants will be issued and their relatives will be called in to have their last meeting with them," the Express Tribune quoted Interior Ministry as saying.
A de facto moratorium on civilian executions has been in place in Pakistan since 2008.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered the lifting of self-imposed moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases after the massacre of 148 people, including 132 students, in the worst terrorist attack in Pakistan's history.
"These sacrifices will not go wasted and we all want complete elimination of terrorism from Pakistan," Sharif had said.
According to the interior ministry estimates more than 8,000 death row prisoners are in Pakistan who have already exhausted all options and would be hanged within weeks if the government allowed the executions.
(With additional information from PTI)
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