Pakistani president rejects petitions for army school attack convicts

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain Friday rejected a mercy petition of four militants who had been given death sentences for an attack on an army school which killed nearly 150 students and staff members last year, officials said.

The decision came a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif advised the president to reject the petitions of all four convicted terrorists.

The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had quickly claimed responsibility as a group for suicide bombers who entered the Army Public School(APS) and started indiscriminate firing at the students, teachers and staff members last December.

"The President has rejected the mercy petition of four terrorists involved in the APS terror tragedy in Peshawar on the advice of the Prime Minister," the president's office said.

There is now no legal impediment in the execution of the convicts as the president is the final authority to take the decision on mercy petitions of prisoners on death row.

Nearly 140 students were among those mercilessly killed in the attack that had shocked Pakistan and the whole world.

The military courts, established after the school attack for speedy trail, have awarded death sentences to the four militants for their role in the attack.

Immediately after the tragedy, the state, parliament, all political parties and every single state institution unanimously decided to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice even if amendments in the laws required.

The Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has already approved the death penalty and the convicts had the right of appeal to the president.

It would be the first executions since the military courts were established earlier this year. Endit