KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court issued on Saturday black warrants for the execution of seven condemned prisoners, including four militants of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

The court issued warrants for the hanging of four LJ militants — Mohammad Shahid Hanif alias Mufti Shahid, Mohammad Talha Hussain alias Noman, Khalil Ahmed alias Hassan Jan and Mohammad Saeed —in two sectarian killing cases.

The black warrants were also issued for Al Qaeda’s Zulfikar Ali for killing two policemen near the US Consulate General in Karachi, Behram Khan for murdering a lawyer in a courtroom of the Sindh High Court and Shafqat Hussain for killing a minor boy after kidnapping him for ransom.

The court asked the jail authorities to hang Shahid, Talha, Khalil, Behram and Zulfiqar on Jan 13, Shafqat on Jan 14 and Saeed on Jan 15.

The jail authorities approached the ATC-III for the hanging of death row prisoners submitting that they were sentenced to death by the ATC-III and later the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the convictions, while the President also turned down their mercy petitions.

Therefore, the jail officials asked the trial court to issue black warrants for their execution.

Judge Saleem Raza Baloch of the ATC-III issued the black warrants for the seven condemned prisoners directing the authorities to carry out the hanging under the supervision of the area magistrates after fulfilling legal formalities. The court asked the jail officials to hang the convicts till death on the respective dates at 6.30am.

Court officials said that Shahid, Talha and Khalil were confined to the Sukkur central prison, while Behram, Shafqat and Saeed were in the Karachi central prison. Zulfiqar Ali is confined into Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

They said that their hanging would be carried out at the respective prisons. The convicts were sentenced to death by the then judge of the ATC-III, Arshad Noor Khan, they added.

The Pakistan Peoples Party government had placed a moratorium on executions in 2008. However, the PML-N government lifted it on Dec 17 in the wake of the Peshawar school tragedy.

Shahid, Talha and Khalil were sentenced to death in April 2002 for killing a ministry of defence official, Syed Zafar Hussain, in Nazimabad in July 2001.

The court also handed down capital punishment to Zulfiqar Ali in March 2004 for killing two policemen near the US consulate after snatching a rifle from a constable within the jurisdiction of the Frere police station in February 2003.

Mohammad Saeed was sentenced to death in April 2001 for murdering retired deputy superintendent of police Syed Sabir Hussain Shah and his young son Syed Abid Hussain Shah in an ambush near the Malir City railway crossing.

Behram Khan was condemned to death in June 2003 after he was found guilty of killing Advocate Mohammad Ashraf in April 2003 on the SHC premises.

The prosecution said that Behram along with a sub-inspector had actually come to kill Advocate Qurban Ali Chauhan, who was the attorney for the accused being tried for the killing of Behram’s maternal uncle. The accused entered the courtroom of Justice Zawar Hussain Jaffery of the SHC and killed Ashraf as the killers did not recognise Qurban by face, but their intention was to kill him as they had made queries about their target.

Shafqat Hussain was sentenced to death in September 2004 on charges of kidnapping and killing Umair, son of a car dealer, in April 2004 within the jurisdiction of the New Town police station.

According to the prosecution, the convict was the watchman of a residential building, Nadeem Arcade, and he kidnapped Umair as he came downstairs from his second-floor apartment and took the boy to his room where he hit the captive in the head with a club when he tried to escape. The boy died instantly and he dumped the body in a nearby drain. He demanded ransom from the victim’s father by calling him from different public call offices, though he himself never turned up, it added.

Finally, he asked the victim’s father to place the money under a wooden box lying inside the compound of the Nadeem Arcade, which led to his arrest on May 21, 2004 as the police found the box belonging to the watchman, the prosecution concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2015

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