Pakistan executes 12 death-row prisoners

Pakistan yesterday hanged 12 convicted murderers in prisons across the country, the highest number in a single day since the government lifted a six-year moratorium on capital punishment, officials said.

Ten of the convicts were hanged in the populous Punjab province, while two others were executed in the southern metropolis of Karachi, according to prison officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The latest hangings bring to 39 the number sent to the gallows since Pakistan resumed executions in December after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at a school in the restive northwest.

The partial lifting of the moratorium, which began in 2008, initially only applied to those convicted of terrorism offences, but was last week extended to all capital offences.

Two other executions planned for yesterday were stayed by courts.

In Punjab, three murder convicts were executed from the central town of Jhang, two from Rawalpindi near the capital, two from Mianwali, one from Multan, one from Faisalabad, and one from Gujranwala.

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.

Supporters of the death penalty in Pakistan argue that it is the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy.