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Lahore High Court suspends execution of five terror convicts

Islamabad: The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on Monday suspended the execution of five prisoners convicted of terrorism.

The court issued notices to relevant authorities in the federal government after the relatives of the five prisoners on death row had said the prisoners had not yet filed an appeal against the decision of their execution.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday also declared the death warrants of two convicts illegal, postponing their execution in Sukkur Central Jail. According to death warrants issued by anti-terrorism courts (ATC), the convicts were supposed to be executed on December 23.

The court also granted permission to transfer both convicts from the Sukkur Central Jail to Karachi Central Jail.

The court said that according to jail rules executions are to be carried out only seven days after the black warrants are issued.

Further, just a day ago, four convicts involved in an attack on former president Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf were hanged at a district jail in Faisalabad.

Prior to this, two other convicted terrorists — Mohammed Aqeel, a former member of the army’s medical corps, who goes by the alias of Dr Usman and Arshad Mehrban — were hanged at the Faisalabad District Jail.

Meanwhile, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that around 500 prisoners convicted on terrorism-related charges will be executed in the next two to three weeks.

“The interior ministry has cleared these prisoners for execution and their mercy petitions have already been rejected by the president,” Nisar told reporters in Islamabad.

The decision to lift the moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism-related cases was taken before the Peshawar school attack, the minister clarified. “Army chief General Raheel Sharif had taken up the issue [of capital punishment] with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before the Peshawar tragedy.”

Nisar warned that the decision to execute convicted terrorists could have severe repercussions as suggested by intelligence reports. “But we should not let our guard down if we want to avenge the victims of the Peshawar attack. We are in a state of war,” he said. “We will win this war.”

In a related development, law enforcement agencies on Sunday took into custody a suspect, Mohammed Arshad, from Toba Tek Singh for his alleged involvement and having links with the perpetrators of Peshawar massacre.

news@khaleejtimes.com