Execution of Zainab Ansari's assailant takes number of state-sanctioned killings to nearly 500 since late 2014.
Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistan has executed a man convicted for having raped and murdered a six-year-old girl in the eastern district of Kasur, jail authorities and the girl's family have said.
Imran Ali was hanged to death at the Kot Lakhpat jail in the eastern city of Lahore early on Wednesday, jail officials told Al Jazeera. They spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Ali, 24, was executed in the presence of Muhammad Amin Ansari, the father of six-year-old Zainab Ansari, whose brutal rape and murder in January sparked a widescale manhunt.
"He walked by himself to the gallows, and stood there comfortably," Muzammil Ansari, Zainab's cousin, told Al Jazeera by telephone.
"They put the noose around his head, he did not resist. He did not ask for any forgiveness from us."
Zainab's body was found in a trash heap in Kasur on January 9, sparking nationwide outrage and protests. In Kasur, riots broke out, with police clashing with angry protesters demanding justice be done in the case.
Police arrested Ali two weeks later, after closed circuit television footage showed her being led down a narrow lane in her neighbourhood. Police said that DNA tests also linked Ali to at least six other cases of rape and murder.
In February, a trial court convicted Ali for the kidnapping and murder of Ansari, handing down a death sentence on four counts, including kidnapping, rape and murder.
He was later sentenced to death for the rape and murder of four other children in Kasur.
Public hanging request denied
On Tuesday, the Lahore High Court rejected an appeal by Muhammad Amin Ansari, the victim's father, for Ali to be hanged publicly, saying it was not the prerogative of the court to make that judgment.
The provincial government had denied an earlier, similar request by Ansari, as it did not conform to Pakistani law.
Ansari's family said they made the demand in order to deter other potential criminals.
"To the parents of other daughters, I would say just this: this request we had made for a public hanging, the objective was so that the whole world could see it, and it would have a good effect," Zainab's father, Muhammad, told reporters gathered outside the jail shortly after the execution on Wednesday.
"But even now, given how much the electronic media has highlighted this, because of this families and children have all gained a lot of awareness and become a lot more conscious [...] about how they should bring them and take them to school and other places," Ansari added.
Muzammil Ansari, Zainab's cousin, said she was "not just our daughter, but a daughter of the nation."
"Our daughter's gone, she will never come back. But we wanted to save the other daughters of the nation, by creating fear in the hearts of those who do such horrible things," he added.
For years, Pakistan maintained a moratorium on executions, which it lifted in late 2014 after an attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed more than 130 schoolchildren.
Since then, the state has executed at least 497 people, with a death row population of more than 4,687 people. Rights groups say the use of death penalty in Pakistan is problematic, given numerous fair trial concerns in an overloaded criminal justice system.
The eastern district of Kasur had earlier come to prominence in 2015, when police arrested a gang of paedophiles in the district. The gang had allegedly been involved in the sexual assault and video filming more than 280 young boys.
Years later, family members of the abused children told Al Jazeera they are still awaiting justice.
Source: Al Jazeera, Asad Hashim, October 17, 2018
Pakistan Court Dismisses Petition Seeking Public Hanging of Serial Killer
A serial killer will be executed inside a jail on Wednesday after a Pakistani court on Tuesday dismissed a petition for his public hanging filed by the father of a 7-year-old girl, who was raped and murdered by the convict.
A 2-member Lahore High Court bench comprising Justice Sardar Shamim Ahmed and Justice Shahbaz Rizvi dismissed the plea of Amin Ansari, father of the minor girl, seeking public hanging of convict Imran Ali.
In January last, police arrested Imran 2 weeks after he raped and killed the minor girl and threw her body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur, some 50-km from Lahore.
The incident triggered nation-wide street protests in Pakistan with people demanding a harsh punishment for the 23-year-old accused. Violent protests in Kasur city following her murder claimed 2 lives.
An anti-terrorism court here last week ruled that Imran's death sentence will be carried out on October 17 at Lahore's Central Jail.
"You are required to hang Imran Ali, 23, by neck until he be dead at central jail, Lahore on October 17 and to return this warrant to this court with and endorsement certifying that sentence has been executed," read the ATC Lahore Judge Sajjad Ahmed.
Imran, a resident of Kasur, was accused of being involved in at least nine incidents of rape-cum-murder of minors. The court has given its verdict in five cases.
Dismissing Ansari's plea to hang Imran in full view of public, Justice Shamim asked the petitioner's lawyers "you should have filed the application to the government. We are not the government. You have come here so late. The date of the hanging has been fixed for tomorrow."
Ansari's counsel requested the court to allow a live telecast of the hanging inside the jail. The court did not agree and dismissed the plea.
The petitioner said the convict can be hanged publicly under the Section 22 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, which allows the government to specify the manner, mode and place of execution of any sentence passed under this Act.
"The purpose and objective behind the incorporation section is very much clear. The murderer of my daughter should be given exemplary punishment so as to avoid any such tragedy in future, God forbid. The statutory violation of Section 22 of ATA 1997 cannot be allowed under the Constitution of Pakistan hence calls for the interference of the LHC," the petitioner said.
The girl's mother had also demanded his public hanging.
"We want that the suspect should be stoned to death for his crime as hanging in jail is a punishment which is given to other criminals but this beast deserves either public hanging or stoned to death," she said.
According to central jail officials, Imran will be hanged at 5.30 am Wednesday.
The ATC on February 17 gave him 4 counts of death penalty, 1 life term, a 7-year jail term and Rs 4.1 million in fines.
The 4 death penalties were for kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl, and for committing an act of terrorism punishable under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act.
Source: news18.com, October 16, 2018
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
