04 October 2017•Update: 04 October 2017
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
Three Taliban militants convicted by a military court for their involvement in multiple acts of terrorism were executed at a prison in northwest Pakistan early Wednesday morning, the military said.
The executed militants -- Sajid Khan, Behram Sher and Fazl-e-Ghaffar -- were members of outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ( and involved in the June 2014 attack on a Pakistan International Airlines plane arriving at Peshawar Airport, killing of innocent civilians, and attacking armed forces, according to a statement from the Pakistan army.
The airline attack left one female passenger dead, and two crew members injured.
The "hardcore" militants were executed at a prison in Khyber (KP) province, the statement said, without giving further details.
Pakistan, which ranks third in terms of executions in recent years has executed over 300 convicts following the lifting of a 6-year de facto ban on capital punishment in late 2014.
The de facto ban, which had been imposed in 2008 to help receive relaxations and benefits from the European Union, was lifted after a gun-and-bomb attack on an army-run school in northwestern Peshawar city in December 2014 that killed over 140 people, mostly children.
The gruesome attack that ranks as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's 70-year also led to the establishment of controversial military courts.
According to human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which criticize the lifting of on capital punishment, a majority of the executed were not militants.
