Supporters of Pakistan's Muttahida Quami Movement political party hold a sign at a rally in Karachi on Dec. 19, 2014, to condemn the Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.ATHAR HUSSAIN/Reuters
Pakistan hanged two convicted militants on Friday – the country's first executions in years – after the government reinstated the death penalty in response to a horrific Taliban school massacre this week that killed 148, most of them children.
Pakistan also stepped up an offensive against the militants in the country's northwest, along the border with Afghanistan, with warplanes and ground forces pounding their hideouts. A total of 77 militants were killed in the operation, which started late Thursday and went on throughout the day Friday.
The school massacre earlier this week stunned the country and brought cries for retribution. In the wake of the mass killing, the military has struck targets in the Khyber tribal region and approved the death penalty for six convicted terrorists.
The home minister for Punjab province where the two convicted men were hanged confirmed their deaths.
"We have started these executions by hanging two terrorists," Shuja Khanzada told Associated Press. He identified the two men as Mohammed Aqeel and Arshad Mahmood and said they were executed at a prison in the central Punjabi city of Faisalabad.
"Today's executions of terrorists will boost the morale of the nation, and we are planning to hang more terrorists next week," he said.
The Pakistani army chief late Thursday signed the death warrants of six "hard-core terrorists" convicted and sentenced to death by military courts. At the time, no date was given for the executions but authorities moved quickly after the warrants were signed.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday announced that he would lift a moratorium on executions in terrorism-related cases, as part of efforts to get tough on militants following the Peshawar school killings.
Both Aqeel and Mahmood were tried in military courts, so little is known about their court proceedings. Pakistani media reported that Aqeel was convicted in relation to a 2009 attack on army headquarters and Mahmood for his role in a plot to execute former president Pervez Musharraf.
Also Friday, Pakistani security forces killed a senior Pakistani Taliban leader along with seven of his associates in three separate pre-dawn raids in the southern province of Baluchistan, said a tribal police officer, Ali Ahmed.
In schools across Pakistan, special classes were held Friday, with schoolchildren chanting prayers in memory of the victims of the Taliban slaughter. In mosques throughout the country, worshippers also offered special prayers for the massacred innocents in Peshawar.