Pakistani sentences 20 members of criminal gang to death

MULTAN, Pakistan – A Pakistani court has sentenced 20 members of a criminal gang to death after finding them guilty of killing several security officials and kidnappings in Punjab province.

In Tuesday’s ruling, the court in the city of Multan also sentenced two men to life in prison over links to the gang.

The Chotu gang remained active until 2016, when police backed by military helicopters raided its hideouts in the town of Rajanpur and arrested dozens of suspects.

Pakistan has executed hundreds of inmates since 2014, when it lifted a moratorium on the death penalty after a militant attack on a school in Peshawar killed more than 150 people, most of them schoolchildren.