By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
A series of executions has continued in Pakistan with seven more convicts hanged on Tuesday, despite building international criticism.
The total executed is 17 since the government ended a moratorium on the death penalty since the Taliban killed more than 100 children at a school in the city of Peshawar on December 16.
Four convicts belonging to the outlawed Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has been involved in killings of minority Shias, were executed in jails in the cities of Sukkur and Karachi jails, authorities said.
Two other were executed in the Faisalabad jail for a failed suicide attack on former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf and another was hanged in Rawalpindi for involvement involved in a 2002 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi.
International watchdog Human Rights Watch released a statement on Tuesday calling on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is due to have talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday, to put pressure on Pakistan to end the executions.
“A serious rollback in human rights in Pakistan has been under way since the horrific attack last month on a Peshawar school,” said the group's deputy director Phelim Kine. “Secretary Kerry should make it clear to Pakistani leaders that trying civilians before military courts and going on a death penalty spree is contrary to international law."
According to government figures; more than 8,000 convicts are awaiting execution in Pakistani jails.
Pakistan had imposed an unofficial ban on capital punishment in 2008 in exchanged for trade and export benefits from the European Union.
