Stf/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA combination photograph of front pages of some national newspapers in India from 2010, when Ajmal Kasab was sentenced to death by a lower court.After years without executions, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan all killed convicted criminals in recent days, as the United Nations General Assembly voted to ban the death penalty.
In India, Ajmal Kasab, the lone remaining gunman convicted in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was hanged on Wednesday morning, officials said, the first time India has applied the death penalty in eight years.
Pakistan ended a four-year moratorium on the death penalty on Nov. 15, with the hanging of Muhammad Hussain, a soldier convicted of murder in Punjab province.
Afghanistan, meanwhile, witnessed what Human Rights Watch called a “sudden surge in executions,” with the killing of eight people convicted of crimes including murder and sexual assault on Nov. 20, after a four-year period in which just two people were executed.
The wave of executions coincides with the United Nations General Assembly’s call for a moratorium on the death penalty. The General Assembly voted on Nov. 19 to approve a draft resolution asking members to abolish the death penalty. The vote passed with 110 nations approving, 39 against and 35 abstaining from voting, the United Nations said.
India and Pakistan were among the nations that voted against the resolution, along with Japan, Syria, Egypt and Sudan.
Human rights advocates warned against reading a larger message into the timing of these executions. “It’s a horrible, weird coincidence,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, who is based in Delhi. None of these countries was trying to send a global message of any sort, she said.
Mr. Kasab’s execution came five days ahead of the anniversary of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. India had had an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty for almost a decade, Ms. Ganguly said. “We hope this is the exception, rather than the rule,” she said.