Kausar rape victim's father moves Pak court for public hanging of convict

The father of a seven-year-old girl, who was brutally raped and killed by a serial killer, has moved a high court in Pakistan, demanding public hanging of the convict who has been sentenced to death.

The girl's father filed the plea in the Lahore High Court yesterday requesting public hanging of 23-year-old Imran Ali who is convicted of rape-cum-murder of the girl in Kasur city.

In February, Lahore's anti-terrorism court sentenced Ali to death in the first ever trial in the country's history that concluded in shortest period of four days.

The brutal rape and murder of the girl of Kasur, some 50 kms from Lahore, had sparked national outrage.

The convict was also given life imprisonment and a seven-year jail term in addition to the death penalty.

The petitioner said that section 22 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 empowers the government to hang a convict publicly.

The government may specify the manner, mode and place of execution of any sentence passed under this Act, having regard to the deterrent effect which such execution is likely to have. Therefore, the court should order the government to ensure that the convict is hanged publicly to satisfy the requirement of deterrence in society, the petitioner said.

The Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court have already dismissed the convist's appeals against the sentence.

The ATC in its verdict had observed the crimes committed by the convict were absolutely horrendous and barbaric.

The convict had not only deceitfully kidnapped the minor girl but also brutalised her by committing rape and then killed her, it said.