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Pakistan Sentences 13 Militants To Death On Terrorism Charges


Pakistani military courts have sentenced 13 militants to death for terrorism-related offenses, including the 2013 massacre of 10 foreign mountaineers, the army said on March 15.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan member Irfan Ullah was sentenced for the attack on the base camp at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan's second-highest mountain, which shocked the world and hurt the country's climbing tourism industry.

Gunmen dressed in police uniforms stormed the camp and shot dead 10 mountaineers from the United States, China, and other countries.

The army described the offenders as "hard-core terrorists" who committed "heinous offenses relating to terrorism," including attacking schools and an airport and killing security officials and civilians.

Pakistan has hanged more than 300 people since lifting a moratorium on the death penalty in December 2014. Many were convicted in closed military courts, which critics say fail to meet fair trial standards.

Pakistan amended its constitution to allow military courts to try hard-core militants after Taliban gunmen killed more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa

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