RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court's (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Monday stayed the convictions of five prisoners who were handed the death penalty for involvement in an attack on an army camp in Gujrat in 2012.

The stay came over a petition filed by the counsel of one of the convicted men.

Justice Arshad Mahmood Tabassum of the LHC heard the petition filed by Advocate Laiq Khan Swati, who told the court that his client Ahsan Azim was not provided with any information pertaining to the case including the charge sheet as well as the summary of evidence and trial proceedings despite requests submitted earlier.

He added that his client's family members were suddenly told to hold a last meeting with the Azim as he was going to be hanged soon.

Ahsan Azim, hailing from Wah Cantt, is currently held at the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

Kamran, Umar Nadeem, Ahsan Azim, Amir Yousuf and Asif Idrees were handed down death sentences by a military court for their involvement in an attack on an army camp in Gujrat in 2012. The attack had claimed the lives of at least seven security personnel.

Earlier on Friday, two former military men were executed in the Faisalabad district jail.

Read: Militant siege of Peshawar school ends, 141 killed

Usman, a former soldier of the military's medical corps, was executed in relation to an attack on the headquarters of the Pakistan Army in 2009 in Rawalpindi. Moreover, Arshad Mehmood, who was a trooper and also hanged, was among the five people convicted for their role in an Al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempt on Musharraf’s life in late 2003.

The hangings on Friday were the first death sentences carried out after the government ended a six-year moratorium on executions, a move that appears to have come in response to the Peshawar tragedy that claimed the lives of over 140 people, most of them children.

Also read: Army chief signs death warrants of six terrorists

On Sunday, four more convicts were executed at a district jail in Faisalabad.

In response, Taliban groups released messages vowing revenge for the deaths of their associates. Security has been tightened in and around jails and all major cities of the country have been put on high security alert to avoid any untoward incident.

SHC suspends execution of two death row prisoners

The Sindh High Court (SHC) suspended the convictions of two death row prisoners, for a week, who were handed the death penalty for killing Dr Ali Raza in 2002.

The convicts were not associated with any outlawed militant outfit but were found by an anti-terrorism court to carry out the targeted killing on sectarian grounds. They were delivered death sentences.

Despite appealing against the verdict of the ATC in the SHC and the Supreme Court, their pleas were rejected.

The convicts have now filed a petition in SHC, saying that they had registered a review appeal with the Supreme Court which was yet to be heard.

Both the convicts were scheduled to be executed on Tuesday (tomorrow).