Relatives cover their faces as they receive the body of Imran Ali, who was executed after being convicted of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, in Lahore on Oct 17, 2018.PHOTO: AFP

LAHORE: Pakistani authorities yesterday executed a man convicted of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, in an incident that shocked the country and sparked riots earlier this year. Chilling CCTV footage broadcast on television following the killing purportedly showed the young girl - Zainab Fatima Ameen - walking hand-in-hand with an unidentified man. Imran Ali, 24, was handed four separate death sentences for the rape and murder, which took place in the eastern city of Kasur in January. In all he confessed to eight attacks on children in the city, including five murders, in a spate of violence that terrorized society. "He was hanged this morning in the presence of a prison official and the father of the victim," said an official at Lahore's central prison, where the convict was executed. - AFP