Pakistan hangs triple murderer

Pakistan hanged a man convicted of murdering three people on Thursday, taking the number of executions carried out since the country resumed the death sentence in December to 25.

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LAHORE // Pakistan hanged a man convicted of murdering three people on Thursday, taking the number of executions carried out since the country resumed the death sentence in December to 25.

Mohammad Siddique, a security guard convicted by an anti-terrorism court of murdering three people in a theatre following a quarrel, was hanged in Toba Tek Singh district in Punjab province.

Following a Taliban school massacre in December that left more than 150 people dead, Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on executions in terror cases.

The government extended the order on Tuesday, directing provincial governments to proceed with hangings for all death row prisoners who had exhausted their appeals and clemency petitions.

“Siddique, a 60-year-old private security guard was hanged at 5.30am (4am UAE) for killing three people in a theatre in 2004,” Wasif Bashir, a senior administration official in the city, said.

A jail official also confirmed the hanging.

Reintroducing the death penalty was part of Pakistan’s stepping up of the fight against militants and criminals since the attack on school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December.

Heavily armed gunmen went from room to room at the army-run school gunning down 153 people, most of them children, in an attack that horrified the world.

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

* Agence France-Presse