Pakistan hangs 12 convicts
Pakistan has hanged 12 convicts, the largest number of people executed
on the same day since the country overturned a ban on executions.The men
were terrorists, murderers or guilty of "heinous crimes", an interior
ministry spokesman said. At least 27 convicts have been executed since
the moratorium was lifted, most of them militants, Reuters reported.It
is estimated there are more than 8,000 Pakistanis on death row. Rights
groups say many convictions are unsafe.A moratorium on hangings was
lifted for terror-related crimes after a Taliban attack in December
killed more than 150 people, mostly children, at a school in
Peshawar.But last week it became clear that officials had widened the
capital punishment policy to include all prisoners on death row whose
appeals had been rejected.The subsequent executions have taken place
despite calls by the UN not to resume them. Human rights groups say that
prisoners often do not receive a fair trial within Pakistan's outdated
criminal justice system and that poorly-trained police often use torture
to force confessions.