17 Pak terrorists set to be executed

Jail authorities in Pakistan have started making arrangements in different parts of the country for the execution of 17 dreaded terrorists in the next few days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced lifting of a moratorium on the death penalty.
Sharif's announcement came after a round table conference of political parties soon after the deadly terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in which at least 132 schoolchildren were massacred.
According to media reports today jail authorities in Karachi, Faisalabad, Lahore and Sukkur have been given instructions to start making preparations for the execution of 17 high profile terrorists who have been sentenced to death.

These include Aqeel alias Usman, the mastermind of the terrorist attack on the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi who is presently jailed in Faisalabad, Niaz Muhammad who carried out the attempted assassination bid on former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, Nur Badshah who carried out an attack on former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and Sheikh Omar Saeed in Hyderabad jail who is facing death for the killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, and Fazal Hameed.
The last execution was carried out in Pakistan in 2008 after which the government imposed a moratorium on carrying out death sentences.
Also today, army chief General Raheel Sharif signed the death warrant of six hardcore terrorists, pending execution, by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM).

Sources said that the men are expected to be executed within the next 48 hours.