Islamabad – An official at the Pakistani Interior Ministry said Government has hanged 200 death row prisoners since lifting a six-year moratorium on executions late 2015.
The official said on Thursday on condition of anonymity in Islamabad that the 200 mark was reached yesterday.
An official at the prison department also said on condition of anonymity that at least four more hangings took place at jails in the central province of Punjab on Wednesday, bringing the total to 200.
He said government lifted a moratorium on capital punishment in December 2014 after Taliban militants killed 136 children at a school in Peshawar.
The executions were again halted for the month of Ramadan when Muslims across the world fast from dawn to dusk.
Pakistani authorities have hanged as many as a dozen death row prisoners a day.
The official said based on the statistics compiled by the Law Ministry, more than 8,000 are awaiting the gallows in Pakistani jails, most for decades.
The United Nations, European Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other global bodies have urged Pakistan to immediately reinstate the moratorium.
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Zaman Khan, spokesman for the Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), reported that 196 convicts had been hanged through Tuesday.
He called the development extremely cruel and painful.
Khan said the worst part was that those being hanged were poor, and the ones who cannot buy justice in a system riddled with corruption. (dpa/NAN)
