Pakistan executes convict in Musharraf assassination attempt case

Islamabad: A former Pakistan Air Force (PAF) junior technician, convicted in former president Pervez Musharraf assassination attempt case, was executed on Wednesday, a media report said.

Niaz Mohammad was hanged at the Peshawar Central Prison, Dawn online reported. He was sentenced to death for attempting to assassinate Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003.

He was a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa'S Swabi district. He was kept at the Haripur Central Prison until Tuesday, from where he was shifted to the Peshawar Central Prison in a helicopter.

Earlier, the administration had deployed police and army personnel in and around the prison amid terrorist threats. The Sher Shah Suri Road, where the prison is situated, had already been closed to the traffic Tuesday night.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Reuters1

The last death sentence at the Peshawar Central Prison was carried out June 6, 2006, when a condemned prisoner, Mawas Khan of Sufaid Sung area in Peshawar, was hanged to death.

In the first assassination attempt on Musharraf, which took place near Jhanda Chichi bridge in Rawalpindi Dec 14, 2003, six PAF personnel were convicted by a field general court martial at the PAF Base Chaklala Oct 3, 2005, after they were kept in detention for over 20 months.

Since Dec 19, four personnel - former junior technician Adnan Rashid, who later escaped during the 2012 Bannu jailbreak, former chief technician Khalid Mehmood, former senior technician Karam Din, and former corporal Nawazish - have been sentenced to death.

However, the sixth convict, Nasrullah, also a junior technician, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

IANS