LAHORE: Pakistan on Saturday hanged a militant of a banned extremist Sunni outfit here after a court rejected a “compromise” and upheld the death penalty awarded to him, taking the number of executions in the country since the lifting of the moratorium on capital punishment to 20.
Ikramul Haq, alias Lahori, was hanged in Kot Lakhpat Jail here 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 one Nayyar Abbas at an Imambargah in Shorkot area of Jhang, Punjab Province in 2001.
Haq;s execution was scheduled earlier on January 8, 2014 but was delayed at the eleventh hour after an agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant was produced before the magistrate.
Later the condemned prisoner and the plaintiff parties were asked to approach the anti-terrorism court for confirmation of the agreement pardoning Haq.
Out of eight family members of the deceased Abbas, only his two brothers and a sister appeared before the judge, hence the court refused to accept the agreement and upheld its decision of death sentence to the convict.
Strict security measures were in place in and around Kot Lakhpat Central Jail. Heavy contingent of police, besides army and rangers personnel were deployed in and outside the jail premises.
Family members of Ikramul Haq held last meeting with him on Wednesday. After carrying out the execution, authorities handed over Haq’s body to his brother.
Earlier Muhammad Saeed Awan, a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, was hanged at Karachis Central Jail on Thursday. Awan was convicted of shooting to death police officer Sadiq Hussain Shah and his son, Abid Hussain Shah, in 2001.
So far 20 convicts have been hanged since the lifting of a moratorium on death penalty by the government after the Peshawar school carnage.
On Dec 17, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had lifted the moratorium on death penalty after the attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School that killed more than 140 people including 134 school children.
The moratorium was enforced during the tenure of the Pakistan Peoples Party government in 2008.
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