Pakistan resumes executions after Peshawar school attack

One of those executed was convicted over an attack on Pakistan's Army HQ in 2009, the other over an assassination attempt on ex-leader Pervez Musharraf.

The UN had earlier urged Pakistan not to resume its executions.

Some 141 people, mostly children, died in the Taliban attack on the Army Public school in Peshawar.

Pakistan's military carried out operations against Taliban units in areas near the border with Afghanistan on Friday, saying it had killed 59 militants.

'Different crimes'

The two executions were carried out in the central city of Faisalabad late on Friday, officials said.

Pakistani media named the two executed men as Aqeel, alias Dr Usman, and Arshad Mehmood.

Usman was arrested during the raid on the Rawalpindi HQ and sentenced to death in 2011.

Mehmood was sentenced to death over the attempt on Mr Musharraf's life in the same city in 2003.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville had earlier urged Pakistan not to resume executions.

He said: "To its great credit, Pakistan has maintained a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2008," he said, adding that those at risk of imminent execution were unconnected to the "premeditated slaughter" in Peshawar.

"We urge the government not to succumb to widespread calls for revenge, not least because those at most risk of execution in the coming days are people convicted of different crimes."

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on executions in terror cases amid outrage at the massacre of the children.

The country's de facto foreign minister, Sartaj Aziz, said the Peshawar attack was his country's own "mini 9/11" and required a sea-change in its fight against terrorism.

Source: BBC, December 19, 2014

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Pakistan Executes Two Terrorists After Lifting Moratorium on Death Penalty

ISLAMABAD: Two convicted terrorists were today hanged in Pakistan just two days after the Nawaz Sharif government ended a moratorium on capital punishment in terror-related cases following the Taliban-perpetrated massacre at a school in Peshawar in which over 130 children were killed.

Aqeel alias Dr Usman, a former serviceman, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of involvement in the attack on Rawalpindi's Army General Headquarters (GHQ) in 2009. He was also convicted for the attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in the same year. Arshad Mehmood, also known as Mehrban, was convicted for an assassination attempt on former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf in 2003.

"Yes, two militants Aqeel alias Doctor Usman and Arshad Mehmood have been hanged in Faisalabad jail," Shuja Khanzada, Home Minister of central Punjab province, where executions took place, told AFP.

Four more executions will reportedly take place tomorrow in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore where a high alert has been sounded.

On Thursday, Pakistan's military chief Raheel Sharif signed death warrants for six terrorists on death row. Security officials said the six had been convicted by a military court and were awaiting execution.

The announcement came hours after the government warned prison officials of a possible jailbreak in the restive northwest province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa following the end of the moratorium.

On Wednesday, PM Sharif announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases after the Pakistani Taliban attacked a military-run school in Peshawar killed 148 people, mostly children.

The assault in the northwestern city is the deadliest ever terror attack in Pakistan and has shocked the nation.

Political and military leaders have vowed in response to wipe out the homegrown Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands of ordinary Pakistanis in recent years.

Pakistan imposed a de facto moratorium on civilian executions in 2008, though hanging remains on the statute book and judges continue to pass the death sentence.

Only one person was executed since - a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.

Source: NCTV, December 19, 2014

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New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

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