Parents of convicted Kashmiri youth Shafqat Hussain
Karachi Pakistani authorities issued a death warrant Friday for a convicted killer whose supporters say he was a juvenile at the time of his crime and whose case has attracted attention from rights groups around the world.
Shafqat Hussain was sentenced to death for killing a seven-year-old boy in Karachi in 2004 but has had several stays of execution, most recently last month.
His case has drawn international attention as his lawyers and family claim he was only 15 at the time of the killing.
The government ordered an investigation to try to determine his true age.
The probe, carried out by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) found Hussain was an adult at the time of his conviction, according to media reports its results have not been published officially.
Now the FIA inquiry is over and his age has been determined, we sought the death warrant of Shafqat from the ATC, a jail official who did not want to be named told AFP.
According to the execution order, Hussain is due to be hanged at dawn on May 6.
The Justice Project Pakistan, a human rights law firm fighting Hussains case, said it was shocked the warrant had been issued when proceedings about his age were still going on in Islamabad High Court.
Earlier this month the court asked the government to respond in detail to an application by Hussains lawyers to set up a judicial commission to determine his age.
Shafqat Hussain was a student of class four in Kail, Neelam Valley, Azad Kashmir. His father was seriously ill and in serious financial crises, and in order to support his family he abandon his education and came to Karachi in 2004 as a child. With help of friends he got a job as a security guard or a chokidaar.
His brother also lived in Karachi with some other people. They kidnapped a seven year boy from the neighbourhood in New Town where Shafqat Hussain worked; and asked for ransom. Later on when police was involved in this matter they killed the boy and threw his body in a gutter.
At the time of kidnapping and killing Shafqat Hussain was on duty. Police could not arrest the culprits, but they arrested Shafqat Hussain. He was only a child with very little education and experience of city life. The simple village boy, due to fear and intense physical torture accepted the murder. However, later on he withdrew his confession by saying he accepted the murder to avoid torture.
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