Pakistan today hanged four death row prisoners, including two brothers, while postponed the execution of a man whose family alleged he was 14 at the time of crime and his confession was extracted through torture. The execution of four death row prisoners took the number of prisoners hanged across the country to 54, after the deadly Taliban attack on an army run school on December 16, 2014.

The execution of Shafqat Hussain has been postponed for 72 hours just a few hours before his hanging was scheduled to take place this morning. Hussain was convicted by an anti-terrorism court for kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old boy.

Rights bodies say that Hussain was just 14 at the time of crime in 2004 and he was tortured to confess the killing, while the jail record showed him as 23.

His family has urged the President to postpone the hanging who in an overnight decision delayed the execution for 72 hours to let the authorities investigate the allegations, an official of interior ministry said.