Pakistan army chief confirms 11 sentenced to death for terrorism

Eleven people were sentenced to death by military courts for their involvement in acts of terrorism, raising the number of those handed the maximum sentence by the Armed Forces in the last year and a half to 101, Pakistani Army chief, General Raheel Sharif, confirmed Tuesday.

A statement by the InterServices Public Relations, or ISPR, said the 11 were convicted of heinous acts of terror, including sectarian attacks and killing of civilians, military and police officials.

The ISPR added the 11 were members of the TehrikeTaliban Pakistan, or TTP, the country’s main militant outfit and had confessed to their crimes.

One of them, Zia Ul Haq, was convicted for killing deputy inspector general of Quetta Police, Fayyaz Sumbal, in a 2013 suicide attack during a funeral, in which other senior police officials were also killed.

The sentences come a week after another suicide attack at a hospital in Quetta the capital of Balochistan left 72 dead, mostly lawyers.

In early 2015, Pakistan approved the creation of special military courts to handle terrorism cases, a move triggered by a TTPled massacre at a militaryrun school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which killed 125 children and several staff members.

To date, the military courts have convicted 104 people, awarding death sentences to 101 of them.

Military trials are carried out behind closed doors, with no media presence, and with the Army announcing the verdicts later.

In late 2014, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on capital punishment for terrorism related cases, a day after the school attack, and later extended it to cover other crimes too.

Around 424 people have since then been hanged in Pakistan, most of them for crimes unrelated to terrorism, according to the nonprofit Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which condemned the executions.