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In revenge for the school attack? Most certainly as that seems to be the Muslim mentality. And it should only unleash more suicide and other types of terror attacks. It just never seems to stop, does it?
Read the full story @ Peshawar School Attack Pakistan Plans To Execute 500 Militants After Lifting Ban On Death Penalty
Last year, on a grim day in December, seven gunmen armed with rifles and affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban stormed into an Army Public School in Peshawar, a northwestern city in Pakistan. They opened fire on staff and children, killing 141, of whom 132 were schoolchildren. Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group killed all seven terrorists and rescued the remaining 960 students and staff. It was the deadliest terrorist attack to occur on Pakistan’s soil. On Wednesday, Pakistan revisited the tragedy in what was a final measure to bring justice to the attacks by hanging four militants, who were convicted in connection with the school massacre. The men, identified without last names as Maulvi Abdus Salam, Hazrat Ali, Mujeeb ur Rehman, and Sabeel, were executed at a high security prison in Kohat. According to the military, the men were members of Toheed Tawhid Wal Jihad, an affiliate of the Pakistani Taliban.
A man places a rose after lighting candles in front of portraits of the victims of the Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, during a candlelight vigil in Lahore, December 19, 2014. Pakistan executed four men on December 2, 2015 for involvement in the massacre of 134 children at an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar last year, media and security sources said.
Prior to the December 16, 2014 attack, the death penalty was banned in Pakistan. The 2008 moratorium was lifted after the attacks, however, and the country has hanged nearly 300 criminals since. The four men executed Wednesday petitioned for clemency, but Pakistan’s president rejected the requests. Army Chief General Raheel Sharif ordered the hangings a few days ago in a special military court created for terrorism cases. “Today’s executions cannot return my son to us, but I am happy to know that at least four terrorists have been hanged for their role in the killing of our children,” a woman who identified herself as the wife of Arshad Zafar told The Associated Press. Many feel Wednesday’s executions were remedial steps in the right direction. "Dec. 16 is not far away, and that was the day when I lost my son. I shall never be able to forget this pain," Malik Tahir Awan told The Associated Press by phone from Peshawar.
The last time Pakistan saw an attack of this magnitude on its own soil was in 2007 during an attempt on the life of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto two months before she was assassinated. The attack, which involved two bombs exploding near Bhutto’s motorcade, killed at least 180 and injured at least 500 more. Pakistan has been struggling with radical insurgency for years. The Taliban has long since been a destabilizing threat to Pakistan, which was one of three countries – alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to formally recognize the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s recognition of Taliban formally ended after the September 11th attacks. Pakistan’s Shiite minority has been particularly vulnerable to suicide bombers, many of whom flooded into the country during the Iraq war in 2007. “Pakistan has been changed after the Peshawar tragedy. The brutal and merciless killings of our children convinced us that the perpetrators of such crimes do not deserve any mercy,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said last month. “The death sentence awarded to the four terrorists, in fact, was the will of the entire nation.”
Pakistan executes four militants for roles in Peshawar school massacre
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the airstrike Saturday killed "known terrorist leader" Umar Khalifa, who was known by several other names including Khalifa Umar Mansoor. Cook said he was killed along with four other "enemy combatants" in an airstrike targeting members of an Islamic State affiliate known as Khorasan Province. Cook said the attack was conducted in Nangarhar province, where the Islamic State has established a foothold. He called Khalifa a leader in the Tariq Gidar Group, which the State Department on May 25 designated as a global terrorist group. It said the group is linked to the Pakistani Taliban and is based in Dara Adam Khiel, Pakistan. "Khalifa orchestrated multiple terrorist operations in Pakistan to include the January 2016 attack on Bacha Khan University, the September 2015 Badaber Air Force Base attack, and the December 2014 Peshawar school attack that resulted in the deaths of more than 130 children," Cook said in a written statement.
Pakistan Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa said a U.S. Army general had confirmed the death in a phone call to Pakistan's army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif. Bajwa said it was a U.S. drone strike. Cook wasn't specific about what kind of aircraft was used. Pakistan had asked the U.S. for help in eliminating Pakistani militants who have taken refuge in Afghanistan. Pakistani media reported a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week, saying it killed several militants. Mansoor, also known as Umar Naray and Khalid Khurasani, had claimed responsibility for training and dispatching a Taliban suicide squad to the school in Peshawar in December 2014.
A Pakistan army soldier inspects the Army Public School that was attacked a day before by Taliban gunmen, in Peshawar, Pakistan. The Pakistani army said Wednesday, July 13, 2016 that the mastermind of the 2014 attack on an army-run school has been killed in a U.S. drone strike. A Pakistani military spokesman says that a U.S. Army general confirmed the death of Taliban leader Khalifa Umar Mansoor in a phone call to Pakistan’s army chief.
Shortly after the school attack, the main branch of the Pakistani Taliban, which has killed tens of thousands of people in recent years in its campaign to overthrow the government and impose Islamic law, disowned Mansoor and his group. Mansoor's killing could indicate improved relations between Washington and Islamabad, allies that have had fraught ties over the years. Relations were strained by a U.S. drone strike in May that killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour as he was driving through Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Pakistan is at war with the Pakistani Taliban, but is widely seen as turning a blind eye to the Afghan Taliban and other extremist groups, viewing them as a way to enhance its regional influence.
In his statement, Cook said the successful attack underscored what he called common security interests shared with Pakistan and Afghanistan. "The United States maintains a robust counter-terrorism partnership with Afghanistan and Pakistan and we recognize the sacrifices made on behalf of our respective militaries to pursue terrorists for the sake of regional peace and security," Cook said. "Only through continued cooperation will we collectively succeed in eliminating terrorist safehavens in the region," he added.
News from The Associated Press
a six-year moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism-related cases,
"To its great credit, Pakistan has maintained a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 2008,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville reportedly said. "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.
"In fact, by feeding a cycle of revenge, it may even be counter-productive," Colville said
