ATC fixed July 18 for the execution of LeJ terrorists in Shia Dr Reza Peerani murder

An anti-terrorism court has reissued black warrants for the execution of two condemned prisoners. Two activists of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif, were sentenced to death in 2004 after an ATC found them guilty of killing a Shia doctor.

Tail authorities had filed applications in court on Monday stating that the previous black warrants issued by the court had lost their legal validity since the presidency issued stay orders to block the hanging.

They submitted that the stay orders in both cases stood lapsed on June 30 and no further orders were received to defer the hanging.

They prayed to the court to issue fresh black warrants for the execution of the two Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ)convicts.

While entertaining the pleas, Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III issued fresh black warrants and fixed July 18for the LeJ men.

The court directed the jail authorities to hang them till death at 4.30am on the respective dates after completing legal formalities.

The appeals and mercy petitions of the convicts have been dismissed by the superior judiciary and the president, respectively.However, the presidency deferred the executions till June 30 in both cases by issuing a number of stay orders.

The LeJ activists gunned down Shia Dr Ali Raza Peerani on sectarian grounds in June 2001 in Soldier Bazaar when he came out of his clinic and about to leave in his car.