Pakistan executes seven prisoners

Pakistan Tuesday hanged seven prisoners, bringing the total number put to death since executions resumed last December to 160, officials said. Seven executions took place in several cities in the central province of Punjab including Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sialkot and Bahawalpur.

All of those executed had been convicted of murder. Executions in Pakistan resumed in December, ending a six-year moratorium, after Taliban militants gunned down 154 people, most of them children, at a school in the restive northwest.

Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism offences, but in March they were extended to all capital offences.The European Union, the United Nations and human rights campaigners have all urged Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium. Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted their appeals.