Killer of eight children hanged

A SERIAL killer who killed eight children was executed at a Pakistani prison yesterday morning after the country’s top court rejected a request for his public hanging, officials said.

Mohammad Imran was hanged in Lahore in the presence of the father of 7-year-old Zainab Ansari, whose rape and murder shocked Pakistan in January. Imran was arrested two weeks after he threw Zainab’s body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur in Punjab province. After his arrest, he confessed to the other murders, and was given the death penalty.

“Imran was taken to the gallows just before dawn and he has been hanged with a rope,” local police said.

Zainab’s father, Mohammed Amin Ansari, was given special permission to witness the execution.

Ansari had demanded that Imran be hanged at a public place as a deterrent to murder, but judges rejected his request this week. Shortly after witnessing Imran’s execution, Ansari said: “My daughter will not come back, but I am satisfied that we (he and his family) got justice.”

Authorities handed Imran’s body to his family and he was expected to be buried later yesterday.

Zainab’s rape and murder shocked the nation after a photo of her went viral on social media, showing the smiling girl in her favourite bright pink coat, with a pink barrette holding back her hair. It angered Pakistanis, who rallied across the country, demanding the immediate arrest of the killer.

Ansari was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with his wife when Zainab disappeared after going to a nearby home for Qur’anic studies.