9 convicted terrorists to face the gallows

Army chief signs death warrants of ‘hard-core militants’

ISLAMABAD: Army chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday signed the death warrants of another nine ‘hard-core militants’ for their involvement in terrorism-related offences.

The terrorists – mostly belonging to the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – were convicted by military of killing “innocent civilians, slaughtering Levies officials and attacking armed forces personnel”, according to a statement issued by the military’s media wing, the ISPR.

“The [condemned] terrorists also include those who had fired at a PIA plane landing at Peshawar airport which resulted in the death of a lady, and injured two other passengers,” it added. They were also involved in cutting off hands of four police officials. Firearms and explosives had been recovered from their possession.

One of the convicts, Sajid, was an active member of the TTP and had been involved in firing on a PIA plane landing at Peshawar airport. Another convict, identified as Javed Khan, also a TTP operative, has been convicted of killing innocent civilians, attacking personnel of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and armed forces. Fazl-e-Haq, who was also a TTP affiliate, had kidnapped four police officials and cut off their hands. He had also been involved in attacks on the LEAs. Three other TTP members – Fazal Rehman, Umar Saeed and Nazeer Ahmed — have been convicted of attacking LEAs and armed forces.  The convicts confessed to their crimes before in the military court which sentenced them to death.

Three members of the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam religious extremist group – identified as Zahid Khan, Rahmat and Bakht Wali – have also been convicted for attacking security forces.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2016.