Pakistan Resumes Executions With Hangings; Plans to Kill 400 More

Officials Say Executions Will 'Boost Morale'

Pakistan had scrapped the death penalty for civilians in 2008, but with officials eager to show they are tough on terror they have brought the policy back today, hanging a pair of militants.

They’re the first of many, according to Pakistani officials, with another 400 executions in the weeks to come, with the Home Ministry saying the killings will “boost morale” in the public after this week’s massacre.

Pakistan has been trying to increase Taliban body-counts since the massacre, claiming 119 militants killed in various offensives since then, though as usual the claims that everyone killed was a militant seems debatable.

Details on who is being executed and when are scant, but the Interior Ministry says that some 20 other detainees will be executed over the weekend, and into early next week.

Pakistani Taliban officials issued a statement vowing revenge for the executions, saying they will kill the families of army generals and politicians as a way of causing mourning for them as well.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.