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Pakistan Hangs 12 Male Convicts


Pakistan has executed scores for convicts since lifting a moratorium on executions in December.
Pakistan has executed scores for convicts since lifting a moratorium on executions in December.
Pakistan has hanged 12 male convicts, the largest number of people executed on the same day since an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said those put to death on March 17 included not only "terrorists," but convicted murderers and others who committed "heinous crimes."

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a de facto moratorium on capital punishment on December 17, a day after Pakistani Taliban gunmen attacked a school and killed more than 150 people, most of them children.

Twenty-seven people have been hanged since then, most of them convicted as militants involved in terrorist crimes.

However, last week it emerged that officials have quietly widened the policy to include all prisoners on death row whose appeals had been rejected.

Human rights groups say many convictions in Pakistan are highly unreliable.

There are more than 8,000 Pakistanis on death row.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Geo TV
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