Today, one day after hanging 12 of its 8,000 condemned prisoners, Pakistan extended its newfound mass-execution campaign. Nine more men went to the gallows at various jails in several Punjab cities.

On the heels of Tuesday’s executions, this binge surely portends a return for Pakistan to the ranks of the world’s most active executioners, sub-China division. Human rights organizations are predictably horrified.

Dawn.com reported the identities of the hanged men — all murderers — as:

• Lahore (1) — Tahir Shabir
• Jhang (2) — Ghulam Muhammad and Zakir Hussain
• Faisalabad (2) — Shafqat and Saeed
• Rawalpindi (2) — Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Shabir
• Mianwali (1) — Ahmed Nawaz
• Attock (1) — Asad Mehmood Khan

More hangings are planned for Thursday, including the controversial execution of Shafqat Hussain, whom advocates say was condemned as a juvenile based on a torture-adduced confession. The shadow of the noose also appears to have triggered a scramble among at least some of those due to be executed to reach private settlements with their victims’ families. Dawn.com reported that Qadeer Ahmed in Rawalpindi and Azhar Mahmood and Muhammad Zaman in Gujrat were both reprieved from Wednesday executions by producing such arrangements at the eleventh hour.

On this day..

• 1871: Generals Lecomte and Thomas, at the birth of the Paris Commune
• 1696: Charnock, King, and Keyes, frustrated of regicide
• 1915: Wenseslao Moguel, "El Fusilado", survives the firing squad
• 1563: Jean de Poltrot, assassin of the Duke of Guise
• 1752: Helen Torrence and Jean Waldie
• 1905: An unknown spy in the Russo-Japanese War
• 1825: Peggy Facto, Plattsburgh infanticide
• 2010: Paul Warner Powell, jurisprudentially confused
• 1647: Mary Martin, infanticide
• 1314: Jacques de Molay, last Templar Grand Master
• 1789: Catherine Murphy, Britain's last burning at the stake
• 1741: Jenny Diver, a Bobby Darin lyric?