Pakistan air strikes kill 31 militants; 5 sentenced to death

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military on Wednesday said it had killed at least 31 militants in air strikes in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghan border.
And in another blow to terrorists, Pakistan’s military courts sentenced to death five more five militants linked to a series of terrorist attack across the country.
In a brief statement, the army said militant hideouts were targeted in the Khyber and Shawal tribal districts, with 14 “terrorists” killed in Khyber and 17 killed in Shawal.
The death toll could not be independently verified as the conflict zone is remote and off-limits to journalists.
Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade.
Officials say more than 2,800 militants have been killed since the launch of the latest offensive.
Pakistan has intensified air strikes and ground attacks, as well as raids on militant hideouts, since December, when a Taliban attack on a school left more than 150 people dead, mostly schoolchildren.
Authorities have claimed major successes in the offensive, and say they have broken the backbone of the militants. Yet scattered attacks still take place in the country, though they are fewer in number and of a lesser intensity than in previous years.
The sentencing of five militants on Wednesday was latest since military courts were established as part of a crackdown on militancy following a massacre at a school in the northwest city of Peshawar on December 16 last year, in which more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed.
Parliament approved the use of the courts for the next two years, and the Supreme Court endorsed the move last month, rejecting claims it was unconstitutional.
The army chief “confirms death sentence of another 5 hard core terrorists involved in killings (of a) Lahore advocate, Quetta sectarian killing,” military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a brief tweet, without giving further details.
The militants were also reportedly involved in several other incidents including a jail break in northwestern town of Bannu in 2012 and attack on a girls school and a polio team in Khyber tribal region.
“6th terrorist (was) awarded life imprisonment,” Bajwa added.
The army announced the first verdicts and sentences from the new courts in April. Six militants were condemned to death and another jailed for life, all on terrorism charges, though scant details of the offenses and trials were given.
On August 13, it announced death sentences for seven more militants for their involvement in the Peshawar school massacre and an attack on a bus of the minority Shiite Ismaili community.