ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will execute two jailed militants next week, ending a five-year moratorium on capital punishment, a move condemned by the Pakistani Taliban as an act of war sure to trigger more violence.
Pakistan’s new government, trying to display its resolve in fighting crime and militancy, overturned the moratorium on the death penalty in June.
The Taliban responded with fury in a pamphlet distributed in the tribal regions of North and South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan where most militant groups are based.
“If the prisoners are executed it would amount to a declaration of war on the part of the PML-N’s (ruling party) government,” said the pamphlet, obtained.
The government of the new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, overturned the moratorium on the death penalty shortly after coming to power in a May election, a decision condemned by international rights groups such as Amnesty International.
Pakistani authorities say capital punishment is key to deterring crime as well as militancy in areas on the Afghan border, where Taliban militants launch daily attacks.
The state of Pakistani jails jumped to the top of the government’s agenda this month after a jailbreak in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan in which 250 inmates escaped, including Taliban militants.
That attack came a year after a similar mass jailbreak in the northern town of Bannu.
Security has been tightened at prisons around the country, but there are fears that the Taliban might be plotting similar
attacks.
“It’s a very sensitive situation here,” Sukkur police chief Irfan Baluch said by telephone.
Reuters
