New Delhi: Serial killer and rapist Imran Ali will be executed inside a jail on Wednesday after a Pakistani court on Tuesday dismissed a petition for his public hanging.

In his plea, Amin Ansari, father of Zainab, the seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by the convict, requested that the convict be hanged publicly under the Section 22 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, which allows the government to specify the manner, mode and place of execution of any sentence passed under this Act.

"The purpose and objective behind the incorporation section is very much clear. The murderer of my daughter should be given exemplary punishment so as to avoid any such tragedy in future, God forbid. The statutory violation of Section 22 of ATA 1997 cannot be allowed under the Constitution of Pakistan, hence calls for the interference of the LHC," the petitioner said.

The girl's mother also demanded his public hanging. "We want the suspect should be stoned to death for his crime as hanging in jail is a punishment which is given to other criminals, but this beast deserves either public hanging or stoned to death," she said.

A two-member Lahore high court bench comprising justice Sardar Shamim Ahmed and justice Shahbaz Rizvi dismissed the plea by Ansari. Justice Shamim told the petitioner's lawyers: "You should have filed the application to the government. We are not the government. You have come here so late. The date of the hanging has been fixed for tomorrow." Ansari's counsel then requested the court to allow a live telecast of the hanging inside the jail. The court did not agree and dismissed the plea.

Also read: A Serial Killer on the Loose? Murder and Rape of 8-Year-Old Zainab Ansari in Pakistan Causes Outrage

In January, the police arrested Imran two weeks after he raped and killed Ansari's daughter and threw her body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur, some 50-km from Lahore. The incident triggered nation-wide street protests in Pakistan with people demanding a harsh punishment for the 23-year-old accused. Violent protests in Kasur city claimed two lives.

Imran, a resident of Kasur, was accused of being involved in at least nine incidents of rape-cum-murder of minors. On February 17, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) gave him four counts of death penalty, one life term, a 7-year jail term and Rs 4.1 million in fines.

The four death penalties were for kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl, and for committing an act of terrorism punishable under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA). Last week, the ATC in Kasur ruled that Imran's death sentence will be carried out on October 17 at Lahore's Central Jail.

"You are required to hang Imran Ali, 23, by neck until he [is] dead at central jail, Lahore on October 17 and to return this warrant to this court with an endorsement certifying that [the] sentence has been executed," read the ATC Lahore Judge Sajjad Ahmed.

According to central jail officials, Imran will be hanged at 5.30 am on Wednesday.

(PTI)

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