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Pakistani military confirms death penalty for nine militants

This file photograph taken on January 7, 2015, shows Pakistani soldiers patroling outside the central jail in Multan, where authorities are said to have executed convicts of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. (AFP Photo)

Pakistan says it has confirmed the death sentence of nine militants linked to a series of terrorist attacks across the country.

"The army chief confirms the death sentence of nine hard-core terrorists involved in killing civilians/law enforcement agencies personnel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and sectarian killings," military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a brief tweet on Monday.

The army official announced that the men had been convicted by military courts.

"One terrorist (was) awarded life imprisonment," Bajwa added.

Major General Asim Bajwa

 

The militants were also said to be involved in several other incidents, including attacks on senior army officials and a mosque in the northwestern city of Nowshera.

The punishments are part of a crackdown on militancy following a massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16, 2014 by a group of pro-Taliban gunmen, in which more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed.

The army announced the first verdicts and sentences from the new courts in April when six militants were condemned to death and another jailed for life, all on terrorism charges.

Parliament has approved the use of military courts for the next two years, and the Supreme Court endorsed the move last month.

On August 13, the military announced death sentences for seven more militants for their involvement in the Peshawar school massacre and an attack on a bus carrying members of Pakistan's minority Shia community.

The Pakistani army has also been waging a full-scale crackdown on militants in the northwestern tribal regions since last June, when a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with the pro-Taliban militants.

According to Pakistan’s military, more than 2,800 militants have been killed over the past months.


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