Pakistan hangs 4 more, takes total number of executions to 59 since December last

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today hanged four death- row prisoners, taking to 59 the number of executions carried out since the country resumed the death sentence in December.

Abdul Razzaq Chohan and Jalil alias Jalal Morejo were executed in the Sukkur jail in Sindh province.

Chohan killed a seventh grade student at a local seminary and was awarded death sentence in 2003, while Morejo was held guilty for shooting a man in 1997 for an old dispute.

The other two convicts Shahbaz Ali and Ghulam Yaseen were hanged in Central Jail Sahiwal and Central Jail Bahawalpur respectively.

While Shahbaz was convicted for killing a boy in 1998 over a land dispute, Yaseen was awarded death sentence for rape and murder of a woman in 2002.

Pakistan lifted a moratorium on death penalty in all cases where capital punishment has been handed down by a court on March 10, expanding an earlier decision to resume executions in terror-related cases following the Peshawar school massacre in December last year that killed more than 150 people, mostly children.

Despite criticism from the local and international human rights groups, so far nearly 60 condemned prisoners have been hanged which is just a small proportion of over 8,000 prisoners waiting for execution in different jails.