Pakistan Military Kills 77 Militants After Attack On A School In Peshawar

Pakistani ground forces and jets killed 77 militants in the tribal regions of the country’s northwest, near Afghanistan border, after Taliban militants attacked a school in Peshawar on Tuesday, killing 148 people. The military forces struck the Khyber tribal region, which is considered the hiding area for militants.

Late Thursday, Pakistan military’s ground forces killed 10 militants while attacks using jets helped kill 17 more. Further 32 alleged terrorists, moving toward Afghanistan, were killed by security forces in a surprise attack in Tirah valley in Khyber on Friday. The region of Khyber lies on the Peshawar border and militants prefer to flee to these regions after conducting attacks in the city. On Friday morning, 18 more militants were killed during a "cordon and search operation" in Khyber, the military said, according to The Associated Press (AP).

The latest military offensive has been inflamed after the Peshawar school attack by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), following which the country’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to intensify the fight against terrorism until “not a single terrorist is left in Pakistan.”

The military also reportedly conducted three separate pre-dawn raids in the southern province of Baluchistan and killed a TTP leader and seven of his associates, Ali Ahmed, a tribal police officer said, according to AP. Since June, the military has been carrying on a massive offensive in North Waziristan, which is considered as one of the tribal regions the militants flee to.

Late Thursday, Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif, also signed the death warrants for six "hard core terrorists," who were sentenced to death by military courts, AP reported. The executions are soon expected to be conducted in jail premises, which are controlled by the military. Shareef did not reportedly confirm the men’s crime or their identifications.

The warrants were signed after the country's prime minister announced Wednesday that he would lift a moratorium on death penalties for terrorism-related cases.