Two prisoners hanged in Pak-occupied Kashmir

Two prisoners, convicted for killing the son of a top lawyer, were hanged today in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the first execution in PoK since the country lifted a moratorium on death penalty after the Peshawar school massacre.
The two were hanged in the Central Jail in Mirpur amidst tight security as a large number of relatives of the condemned prisoners had turned up.
The convicts Muhammad Riaz and Mohammad Fayaz were sentenced to death for killing a son of Advocate General Fazal Rabbani in 2004 during a robbery in Mirpur.
"The dead bodies were handed over to relatives," a jail official said.

The convicts hailed from Jhelum in Punjab and had been apprehended a few days after they committed the crime.
There are 70 death row prisoners in PoK, Inspector General Prisons PoK, Abdul Hameed Mughal was quoted as saying by Dawn.

The two were initially sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a fine was imposed, but the victims' families pursued the matter in the Shariat Court which enhanced the punishment to death penalty in November 2005.
The appeals of the prisoners, challenging their punishment, were rejected by the Supreme Court of PoK in June 2006.
The last time anyone was hanged in the prison was a decade back in 2005, Mirpur jail superintendent Irshad Hussain Jaral said.

Pakistan resumed executions after lifting moratorium in the wake of the Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar last year that left 150 people dead, mostly students.
It has so far executed 22 prisoners since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium. All 22 criminals had been convicted under anti-terrorism laws.
More than 8,000 death prisoners await executions in Pakistan.