Pakistan executes Shafqat Hussain despite appeals

Pakistan has executed Shafqat Hussain, convicted of killing a child in 2004, despite appeals from international human rights groups, the BBC reported.

His lawyers say he was 14 when found guilty and his confession was extracted by torture, but officials say there is no proof he was a minor when convicted.

He met his family one last time before midnight, then was hanged shortly before dawn at a jail in Karachi.

Legal challenges saw his execution postponed four times this year.

But despite the postponements, legal challenges and intense lobbying, all his appeals for mercy were ultimately turned down.

The Pakistani government scrapped a moratorium on capital punishment in the aftermath of an attack on a school in Peshawar in December last years in which more than 150 school pupils and teachers were killed by the Taliban.