Pakistan yesterday executed four men linked to a Taliban massacre in which more than 130 schoolchildren were killed, with parents of victims saying the convicts deserved “no forgiveness” as the anniversary of the attack approached.
The executions, carried out by hanging at a prison in the city of Kohat, were the first in connection with the attack on an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said.
Survivors of the assault, in which the majority of the more than 150 victims were children, said they were “happy” to hear of the executions, with one father saying the hangings should have been carried out in public squares rather than behind prison doors.
Photo: AFP
A Kohat police official named the militants as Maulvi Abdus Salam, Hazrat Ali, Mujeebur Rehman and Sabeel, alias Yahya.
The army on Monday issued a so-called black warrant confirming the executions were imminent. What role the men played in the massacre has not been confirmed.
The gunmen who carried out the massacre were all reported killed by security forces during the attack.
The attack was Pakistan’s deadliest, and shocked and outraged a country already scarred by nearly a decade of extremism.
“The rest should be caught too. No one should be spared,” 18-year-old survivor Waheed Anjum said.
Anjum was struck by three bullets, one in each arm and one in his chest.
“They shouldn’t have been hanged from prisons, they should have been hanged from squares,” said his father, Momin Khan Khattak. “There is no forgiveness in our hearts after what they did to our children.”
Other parents said the executions would act as a deterrent against future extremist attacks.
“The parents of the schoolchildren have long been demanding that the terrorists be severely punished, and today we are satisfied our demands have been met,” said Ajoon Khan, who lost his only son in the attack.
“Had the government hanged all the terrorists before, the Peshawar school attack would never have happened,” he said, adding that he hoped others involved in the massacre would meet the same fate.
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