50 militants killed in Pakistan strikes

Peshawar: Pakistani security forces killed more than 50 suspected militants Friday as operations against insurgents intensify in the wake of a Taleban school massacre that killed 149 people.

The bloody rampage in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday brought international condemnation and promises of swift, decisive action against militants from Pakistan’s political and military leaders.

Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs and national security adviser to the prime minister, said the attack was his country’s own “mini 9/11” and a game changer in its fight against terror.

Pakistan on Friday hanged two convicted militants in the first executions since 2008 when the country imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, officials said. The government ended the ban on capital punishment for terror-related cases following a brutal terror attack on the school.

“Yes, two militants Aqil alias Doctor Usman and Arshad Mehmood have been hanged in Faisalabad jail,” Shuja Khanzada, Home Minister of central Punjab province, where executions took place, said. A senior official from the prison department also confirmed the executions.

An ambush by security forces in the northwest on Friday left at least 32 militants dead, the military said, to add to 27 killed in air strikes and ground operations on Thursday.

In a separate operation on Friday, 18 more militants were killed in Khyber, the military said. The army has been waging a major offensive against longstanding Taleban and other militant strongholds in the tribal areas on the Afghan border for the last six months.

But a series of fresh strikes after the Peshawar attack suggest the military is stepping up its campaign. As the Peshawar tragedy unfolded, army chief General Raheel Sharif said the attack had renewed the forces’ determination to push for the militants’ “final elimination”.

In Karachi on Friday, a suspected local Taleban commander and three cadres were also killed during a raid by government paramilitary Rangers personnel.