Pakistan hangs nine in busy day of executions

Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday executed nine convicts, including four brothers, in the latest hangings since it lifted a moratorium on death penalty last year following the Peshawar carnage.

The executions were carried out in four cities of the largest province of Punjab - Gujrat, Bahawalpur, Multan and Attock, an official of interior ministry said.

Two brothers were executed in district jail Gujrat, while separately, another two brothers were sent to the gallows in Bahawalpur.

A man convicted for murder in a separate case was also hanged in Bahawalpur.

Two men were hanged in Multan in southern Punjab while a man who had killed two persons in a village of Attock district was hanged in the district jail.

In all cases, the executed men had exhausted their appeals against conviction and the president had also rejected their mercy petitions.

None of them was convicted for terrorism.

Pakistan lifted moratorium on executions in December after the Taliban attacked a school and killed 150 people, mostly students.

An official of Human Right Commission of Pakistan said that 246 persons were already executed before today's hangings that brings to 255 the total number of convicts on death row who have been sent to the gallows.

Pakistan has refused to stop hangings despite mounting criticism by the human rights groups, the UN and the EU against implementation of death penalty.

There are about 8,000 death row prisoners in Pakistan.