Pakistan executes eight death row convicts

Eight death row convicts, including three men who hijacked an airplane in May 1998, were executed on Thursday in Pakistan.

Shahsawar, Sabir and Shabbir Baloch hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Balochistan province's Turbat town on May 25, 1998, Dunya News reported.

The PIA Flight 544 was carrying 33 passengers, including five crew members. The hijackers demanded the pilot to enter India. They were arrested when the flight finally landed at Hyderabad Airport.

The three men were sentenced to death on August 20, 1998. Shahsawar and Sabir were hanged in Hyderabad Central Jail, while Shabbir was executed in Karachi Central Jail.

Death row convict, Mahmood was also hanged in Karachi Central Jail. He was sentenced for killing a minor boy in 2003.

Three convicts were hanged in jails across Punjab province.

Akseer was found guilty of killing a man over a business dispute in 1998. Muhammad Ashraf was sentenced for a double murder in 2000. Amir Abdullah was found guilty of killing a man in 2002.

Khurram was executed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Haripur Central Jail. He was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing his friend.

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

Initially, executions were resumed for terrorism offences only in the wake of a Taliban massacre at an army-run school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, which had killed more than 140 people, mostly students.