Prison authorities in Pakistan are set to hang convicted terrorists after the government lifted a six-year moratorium on executions, officials said.
The decision follows the massacre of 135 school children and 12 others by Taliban gunmen at an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday.
Army Chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif signed the death warrants for six militants, a military statement said on Thursday, December 18.
Pakistan had adopted an undeclared moratorium on carrying out death sentences from 2008 to win a trade deal with the European Union. Since then only one hanging of a soldier convicted by a court martial has taken place.
The army chief’s signature is the go-ahead for the execution of those sentences by military courts, the statement added. The statement did not give the six names, but an official told journalists that they included the ringleader of gunmen who attacked the military headquarters in Rawalpindi city.
Trade Minister Khurram Dastgeer Khan has however given the assurance that the decision to lift the ban would not endanger the deal with the 28-nation bloc.
