Pakistanis executed for adultery

Hudood laws can punish women for extra-marital sex

A woman and three men were shot dead in a public execution in a Pakistani village after tribal elders found them guilty of adultery, officials said.

The death sentences were ordered by a jirga (council) of elders in the Khyber agency area on the Afghan border.

Sex outside marriage is a crime in Pakistan and tribal village councils often punish those involved with death.

Last year, Pakistan's parliament approved a new bill amending Islamic laws on rape and adultery.

The new law dropped the death penalty for people having sex outside marriage.

'Confessed'

"We found a man and a woman in a compromising position along with another man who was drunk and had already committed adultery, and the owner of the house," Haji Jan Gul, a village resident, told the news agency Reuters.

"All four confessed to adultery. We punished them according to our customs and traditions," he said.

Reports said the executions were watched by some 600 people.