LAHORE - Another three convicted killers were hanged in the Kot Lakhpat jail on Friday, prison department officials said.
According to jail sources, the death row prisoner, Riaz Yousaf, was sent to the gallows after a special anti-terrorism court (ATC) had issued the death warrants for the convict. Riaz had been awarded death penalty for shooting down two people in Shalimar police precincts.
Similarly, another two death prisoners Nadeem Shahzad and Samar Jan were also sent to gallows in the Kot Lakhpat jail on early Friday. They had murdered a boy after kidnapping him at gunpoint from Garhi Shahu police precincts. Both the convicted killers had been awarded death sentence in 1998.
The authorities issued death warrants of the three condemned prisoners after their mercy pleas had been rejected. The bodies were handed over to the families.
Heavy police contingents and paramilitary troops are deployed around the prisons across the Punjab province amid security threats.
Since the ban on capital punishment was lifted on December 17, more than 150 condemned prisoners have been hanged across the country.
The federal government decided to lift the moratorium on executions a day after the deadliest assault on Army Public School in Peshawar, which left more than 140 people dead, mostly schoolchildren.