Last week, 133 children were killed by gunmen wearing suicide vests at the Army Public School in Peshawar, sparking international outrage and demands in Pakistan for a tougher response to the Taliban.
The day after the attack, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on executions in terror cases.
A senior government official today told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity that Pakistan had "finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals".
He said the executions would take place in the coming weeks.
On Friday, Pakistan hanged two convicted "terrorists" and another four yesterday. It is only the second time the death penalty has been used since 2008, when a moratorium was imposed.
Officials said the “brutal killers” admitted the killing of 148 people during the school attack was an act that had “finally brought them to the gallows".
The Taliban said it will avenge the deaths of the hanged men.
Shuja Khanzada, Punjab’s home minister, told The Associated Press over the weekend: “We have started these executions by hanging two terrorists. The executions of terrorists will boost the morale of the nation, and we are planning to hang more terrorists next week.”
But human rights organisations including Amnesty International have raised concerns about the death penalty after years of allegations of poor police investigations and the use of torture to obtain confessions. There are an estimated 8,000 people on death row.
“As horrific as the attack on the Peshawar school was, more killings - this time by the government - is never the answer to combating terrorism and crime," he added.
Last Tuesday, Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school and killed 148 people, including 133 children, in an eight-hour siege.
The militants said they attacked the school in revenge for an army operation against them, when the government bombed Taliban hideouts along the Afghan border.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/pakistan-to-execute-500-militants-after-taliban-peshawar-school-massacre-in-which-133-children-were-killed-9940124.html
I can't imagine how bloody it was then in the school. It's sorrowful that such a violent massacre happened in a school and claimed more than 100 children's lives. Taliban revenges governments by violence and kills innocent people again and again. Governments should take more actions to fight against terrorism, or Taliban will keep avenging them for the death penalty.
回覆刪除I think those terrorists should be executed by death penalty. If the punishment is not severe it doesn't have power to stop those terrorism attack. Only through complete penalty can a nation prevent their citizens from injuring.
回覆刪除These children are innocent! It's so mean of the terrorists to attack the weakest in the world. Government should always be prepared to face this kind of event,and always make the right and immediate action to save the largest number of people.
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