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.
Both sides of this civil war zeroing in on the combat fighters and their families, sparing those who choose not to get involved, a most welcome change and the way all wars should be fought. Especially when a 5% rich nobility has always owned all of the land and most of the wealth.