Pakistan on Wednesday hanged four militants in Kohat prison linked to a Taliban massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the first time it has executed anyone convicted in the attack.
Pakistan on Wednesday hanged four militants in Kohat prison linked to a Taliban massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the first time it has executed anyone convicted in the attack, which killed more than 150 people.
A Kohat police official named the militants as Maulvi Abdus Salam, Hazrat Ali, Mujeebur Rehman and Sabeel, alias Yahya. The army on Monday issued a black warrant confirming their executions were imminent.
The hangings were confirmed by a prison official, who said the militants had held a final meeting with their families on Tuesday night.
The hangings come nearly a year after the December 16 attack by Taliban gunmen on the army-run school in Peshawar, the country's deadliest ever extremist attack, in which the majority of the victims were children.
The attack shocked and outraged Pakistan, already scarred by nearly a decade of unrest, and prompted a crackdown on extremism, with the establishment of military courts and the resumption of capital punishment after a six-year moratorium.
The bodies of the executed terrorists will be handed over to the families shortly, the Kohat police official said.