ISLAMABAD: Authorities on Tuesday hanged four militants involved in attacks on civilians, police and troops after they were convicted by the country’s military courts, an army statement said.
It said the four, who were hanged at a prison in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, belonged to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Those executed on Tuesday were identified as Rehmanuddin, Mushtaq Khan, Zafar Iqbal and Obaidur Rehman. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) all the TTP militants had confessed to their involvement in murdering innocent persons and carrying out attacks on armed forces and law enforcement agencies.
The army chief last week confirmed death sentences passed by military courts on 30 militants, some of whom were involved in the country’s worst-ever extremist attack.
The assault on a school in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saw Taliban gunmen slaughter more than 150 people, the majority of them children.
The military courts – in which the army can try civilians on terror charges in secret, despite strong criticism from rights groups – were established in the wake of the 2014 attack, which traumatised the country.
They were seen as an “exceptional” short-term measure to give the government time to reform the criminal justice system, as the military targeted militants in the tribal areas of the northwest.
Security has dramatically improved since then. The law expired in January, but was shortly extended for another two years.
