PESHAWAR-
Convicted terrorist Niaz Muhammed; involved in 2003’s Musharraf attack case, was executed in Peshawar early Wednesday morning, private media reported.
Muhammed, hailing from Swabi, was shifted to Peshawar Central Prison from Haripur Prison while a meeting between the convict and his family was arranged by the authorities ahead of the execution.
His body has been handed over to the family.
The attack, which took place in December 2003, involved a powerful explosion targeting the former president’s motorcade as it was passing over a bridge in Rawalpindi.
The motorcade escaped the explosion by a matter of seconds, however, and no one was injured.
Pakistan earlier this month lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases, a decision that came amid public outrage over a Taliban massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar which killed 150 people, including 134 children.
Of the seven people hanged so far, six were involved in the failed attempt to assassinate Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003, while one was involved in a 2009 attack on the army headquarters.
Pakistani officials have said they plan to hang 500 convicts in the coming weeks, drawing protest from international human rights campaigners.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has also announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases in order to accelerate trials, describing them as “an extraordinary solution to an extraordinary problem.”
Despite the moratorium, which began in 2008, courts continued to issue death sentences and Amnesty International estimates there are around 8,000 people on death row in Pakistan.
The United Nations, European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to re-impose its moratorium on the death penalty.
Rights campaigners say Pakistan overuses its anti-terror laws and courts to prosecute ordinary crimes.