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LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) – A man convicted of killing eight children was executed Wednesday in a Pakistani prison after the country's supreme court rejected a request for public hanging, officials said.
Mohammad Imran was hanged in the eastern city of Lahore in the presence of the 7-year-old father of Zainab Ansari, whose rape and murder in January provoked national indignation. . Imran was arrested two weeks after throwing the body into a landfill in Kasur, Punjab province.
After his arrest, Imran confessed to the other murders and was found guilty by a court. Other courts eventually confirmed his death sentence.
"Imran was brought to the gallows just before dawn and he was hanged with a rope in the presence of a magistrate and a doctor," said a local police chief, Mohammad Afzal. Zainab's father, Mohammed Amin Ansari, was allowed to attend the execution.
Ansari had demanded that Imran be hanged in a public place to deter others, but the judges rejected his plea this week. Shortly after witnessing Imran's execution, Ansari thanked the judicial authorities, the government and the investigators for having done them justice quickly.
"My daughter will not come back, but I am convinced that justice is done," he said.
The authorities handed Imran's body to his family and he should be buried on Wednesday.
The rape and murder of Zainab shocked the country after a photo of her became viral on social media, showing the smiling girl in her favorite bright pink coat, with a pink hairpin in her hair . Pakistanis rallied across the country to demand the immediate arrest of the murderer.
Ansari was on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia with his wife at the time of his daughter's disappearance.
Her daughter disappeared while she was going to a neighboring house for Koranic studies.
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Associate Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this story.
