KARACHI, Aug 1: An anti-terrorism court has issued black warrants for the execution of two activists of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in a doctor’s murder case, it emerged on Thursday.

Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif were sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in July 2004 after finding them guilty of killing Dr Ali Raza Peerani on sectarian grounds in June 2001 in Soldier Bazaar.

The court directed the jail authorities at the central prison in Sukkar to hang Attaullah and Azam, one on Aug 20 and the other on Aug 21.

Earlier, the jail authorities informed the ATC-III that the last stay order issued by the president in the case had expired on June 30 and since then they had not received any further order to delay the execution and asked the court to issue fresh back warrants for the convicts.

The ATC-III issued black warrants for the condemned prisoners directing the authorities to carry out the hangings under the supervision of area magistrates after fulfilling legal formalities.

The court had issued black warrants for the two convicts several times in the past, but their hangings were repeatedly deferred after the presidency issued stay orders as during the term of the previous government of the Pakistan Peoples Party only one execution was carried out and it was that of an army solider, who had been sentenced to death by a military court for killing a colleague. The PPP government had placed a moratorium on executions in 2008.

After the capital punishment handed down by the trial court, the superior judiciary upheld the death sentence of both convicts while their mercy petitions were also turned down by the president.

The prosecution said that Dr Peerani came out of his clinic in Soldier Bazaar and was about to leave in his car when two motorcyclists opened fire on him, wounding him critically.

He was rushed to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. Two dispensers at the clinic who had witnessed the scene identified the two LJ men in court as killers.

The police arrested them on June 29, 2002 within the jurisdiction of the Defence police station in three cases of unlicensed weapons and during initial interrogations, they disclosed their involvement in the present case, it added.

A case was registered under Section 302 (punishment for premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act at the Soldier Bazaar police station.

Both convicts with several other prisoners have recently been shifted from the central prison of Karachi to Sukkar and other prisons of the province apparently because of security concerns.

The same court had issued black warrants for the execution of two other condemned prisoners, Behram Khan and Shafqat Hussain, a few days ago and fixed Aug 21 and 22 for their execution.