Pakistan executes 21 convicts in two days

A day after 17 condemned prisoners were hanged in various jails in Pakistan, marking the highest number of executions in the country since the lifting of the moratorium on capital punishment in December last, four more convicts were sent to the gallows on Wednesday.

Four condemned prisoners were hanged to death on Wednesday across Punjab, The News International reported.

Two death row prisoners were sent to the gallows for murder at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.

Besides, a convict each was hanged for murder in New Central jail Bahawalpur and Sahiwal Central Jail, respectively.

Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases on March 10. Initially, the moratorium was lifted and executions were resumed for terrorism offences only in the wake of a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) massacre at an army-run school in Peshawar in which more than 140 people, mostly children, were killed.

The latest executions on Wednesday took the toll of hanged convicts to at least 85.

The UN, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to reimpose the moratorium on the death penalty.