A Pakistani man has been executed for killing a seven-year-old boy in 2004, when he himself was 14 years old.

Shafqat Hussain was hanged shortly before dawn on Tuesday at a Karachi prison. His relatives were allowed to visit him for the last time on Monday evening.

Hussain's execution had been stayed four times amid controversy over executing someone who committed a crime as a minor.

Local and international human rights groups have criticised Islamabad over the issue.

Pakistan imposed a moratorium on executions in 2008, but then first partially and subsequently completely lifted the ban in December, after a Taliban attack on a school in the north-western city of Peshawar that killed 150 people, mostly children.