Three convicts hanged in Lahore jail

LAHORE (Staff Report) - Two brothers among three death row convicts were hanged in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore on Wednesday.

Irfan and Luqman, both brothers, had been awarded death sentence in 1997 for murdering a citizen in 1996 over a petty issue.

Another convict, Raheel from Dera Ghazi Khan, had murdered a man in Sargodha in 1994.

The death convicts were hanged amidst tight security, while the bodies were handed over to families after medico-legal formalities.

90% of all executions took place in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia: Amnesty

Around 400 death row convicts have been hanged since Pakistan completely removed a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at Peshawar's Army Public School on Dec 16, 2014.

Amnesty International reports that there was a dramatic 54 per cent increase in executions globally in 2015, with Pakistan carrying out 326 executions last year - the highest ever recorded by Amnesty International for the country.

Combined with Saudi Arabia and Iran, the three countries are responsible for nearly 90 percent of all global executions.