Three hanged in Pakistan for gang rape

Three Pakistani men were hanged today for gang-raping a woman six years ago, after appeals against their conviction and pleas for clemency were turned town, an official said.

The executions were carried out at dawn at the heavily-guarded prison in Bahawalpur, a town about 105 miles south-west of Multan in eastern Punjab province, said Shaukat Hussain, deputy superintendent of the jail.

Pervez Akhtar, Mohammed Aslam and Mohammed Sabir, all now in their mid 20s, were arrested for raping the married woman in a village near Bahawalpur in 1998. A year later they were sentenced to death. A High Court and the Supreme Court turned down their appeals against the trial court ruling.

Last year the men’s petitions to the president seeking mercy were also rejected, Hussain said.

He said the men had been repentant while on death row in jail.

Their bodies were handed over to their relatives.

Executions in Pakistan are carried out by hanging and often without the presence of relatives of the condemned.