Headlines
Latest hanging closes a chapter in Pakistan's political drama
Islamabad, May 12
Pakistan's most famous
death-row inmate was executed on Tuesday in the high-security Machh jail
in Balochistan province, weeks after a sensational videotaped
confession that became the focus of a major political drama.
Saulat
Ali Khan, alias Saulat Mirza, was a former activist of the Muttahida
Qaumi Movement (MQM), the political party that has its power base in the
southern port city of Karachi. Khan was convicted by an anti-terrorism
court in 1999 of the murder of Shahid Hamid, the then chairman of the
government-owned Karachi Electric Supply Co., along with his bodyguard
and driver in a targeted assassination in 1998.
Khan was well
known in Karachi, but gained national -- and international -- fame after
a pre-recorded confessional video statement was broadcast by national
TV channels just hours before he was to be hanged on March 19 earlier
this year.
In the statement, Khan admitted to carrying out
several political assassinations of rival party leaders and government
officials as well as attacks on security forces on orders from the MQM
leadership, in particular London-based party chief Altaf Hussain.
The
MQM leadership has denied the allegations, but it had also recently
distanced itself from Khan after fighting for his release for more than a
decade.
"He was a bit tense at night and spent it smoking and
writing letters to his family," a prison official who witnessed the
execution said. "But when he was walked out to the gallows, he was
composed and unemotional. His last words were that he would like the
families of the people he murdered to forgive him."
The MQM was
founded by Mohajirs, Muslims who migrated from India following partition
in 1947. Rival parties and security officials said the MQM also ran
extortion and criminal rackets in the city, through what they called was
the party's militant wing. Khan was purported to be leader of that
wing.
MQM leaders denied ties with criminal activities and the
existence of a militant wing. But the party has been on the defensive.
On March 11, the paramilitary Rangers force raided the MQM headquarters
in Karachi, arresting several people, including at least four men sought
in connection with several high profile murders, including that of a
local television journalist.
Saulat Ali Khan's body has now been
handed over to his relatives and a burial is expected to take place
later in Karachi in what MQM watchers said could be a highly charged
political atmosphere.