SC stays execution of two APS attackers

Men were convicted of facilitating the deadly attack on the army-run school on December 16, 2014

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court stayed on Tuesday the execution of two men convicted by military courts for their involvement in the Army Public School attack.

The men namely Taj Muhammad and Aliur Rehman were convicted of facilitating the deadly attack on the army-run school on December 16, 2014 that killed over 140, mostly children.



A two-judge bench headed by Justice Dost Muhammad Khan also stayed the execution of two other convicts. Notices have been issued to the attorney general of Pakistan as well as JAG branch to appear in court on February 16.

The bench observed that military courts should give a reason in their judgment.

The Peshawar High Court had rejected the appeals of the four convicts following which their counsel Latif Afridi took up their petitions to the apex court.

Four terrorists involved in the APS massacre were hanged at a jail in Kohat in December last year. The hangings were the first executions of civilians convicted by Pakistan's military courts. The hanging came two days after Army chief General Raheel Sharif signed black warrants of Maulvi Abdus Salam, Hazrat Ali, Mujeebur Rehman and Sabeel alias Yahya nearly a year after the horrific massacre.



As many as seven terrorists involved in attacks on the Army Public School in Peshawar and Safoora Chowrangi attacks were awarded death sentences by a military court in August 2015.