Countdown begins for execution of eight more terrorists

HYDERABAD/FAISALABAD: Countdown begun to take eight more convicted terrorists to their logical end as authorities finalised arrangements for execution of the condemned prisoners in Hyderabad and Faisalabad jails, Samaa reported.

Three prisoners are ready to be sent to gallows in Hyderabad, according to Samaa correspondent.

Shahsawar and Shabbir were sentenced to death in PIA plane hijacking case in 1998, whereas Saleem Maseeh was involved in a law-enforcing agency officer’s wife.

Sources said the death row convicts could be hanged at anytime as there death warrants have been received.

In district jail Faisalabad, four terrorists are facing the noose.

Nawaz Ali and Ghulam Nabi were involved in attack on Pervez Musharraf while Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdul Malik were handed down death penalty in Rawalpindi bank attack.

The jail administration has received their death warrants.

Muhammad Nawaz, another death row prisoner, is likely to be sent to gallows in Bahawalpur jail. Nawaz, a resident of Punjab’s Sargodha town, belongs to a banned outfit. He was convicted by Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court for his involvement in sectarian riots and bomb blasts.

Six convicts have been hanged after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a moratorium on executions in terror cases, and the military has stepped up operations against insurgent bases in the tribal northwest following massacre of 149 people in Peshawar.

Officials say the government plans to execute around 500 militants in coming weeks. - Samaa