Pakistan executes 3 hardcore militants convicted by military courts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today executed three hardcore militants who were convicted for carrying out terror attacks, including the 2014 Peshawar airport attack, by the military courts of the country.

Army said in a statement that "three hardcore terrorists tried and convicted by a military court were hanged at a jail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (province)."

It said that all three terrorists were involved in committing heinous offences relating to terrorism, including attack on Pakistan International Airline Plane on Peshawar airport, killing of innocent civilians, attacking armed forces of Pakistan and law enforcement agencies.

In June 2014, gunmen fired on a Pakistan International Airlines plane as it was landing in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing a woman on board and injuring three crew members.

Those hanged include Sajid, Behram and Fazal-e-Ghaffar. The venue and dates of trial leading to conviction has not been shared.

Military courts were restored in March for another two years after their initial two-year term expired in January.

The courts were set up after a constitutional amendment following a terror attack on an Army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014 which killed more than 150 people, most of them students.

Human rights group Justice Project Pakistan says 441 people have been executed since the Peshawar attack.

Pakistan has been fighting various extremist groups for over a decade. Militant attacks have killed tens of thousands of people.