MULTAN: Eight more convicted murderers were hanged in various jails of Punjab Tuesday, bringing the total number of executions to around 310 since the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty last December.

The executions come a day ahead of the one-year anniversary of the attack on Peshawar's Army Public School which prompted authorities to lift a six-year moratorium on the death penalty.

The hangings took place in various locations of Punjab early Tuesday.

“Two convicts on death row were hanged in Multan, two each in Bahawalpur and Gujrat and one each in Attock and Dera Ghazi Khan,” Chaudhry Arshad Saeed, an adviser to Punjab's chief minister for prison affairs, told AFP.

Meanwhile, the hangings of two convicts, who were scheduled to be executed in Adiala jail today, were stayed after the deceased and their families patched up, Dawn newspaper reported.

Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases on March 10.

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

But critics say the legal system is unjust, with rampant police torture, poor representation for victims and unfair trials.

Initially executions were resumed for terrorism offences only in the wake of the Tehreek-i-Taliban attack on APS which claimed the lives of at least 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.

No official figures on the number of executions carried out since the moratorium was lifted are available, but rights activists recently put the number at around 302.

The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to re-impose its moratorium on the death penalty.