RAWALPINDI: The Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Monday approved the death sentences of nine ‘hardcore terrorists’ involved in various heinous terrorism activities, said a statement released by head of military's media wing on Twitter.

The director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, tweeted that the army chief confirmed the death sentences of nine hardcore terrorists involved in the killing of civilians and security personnel.

The condemned terrorists were involved in the killing of Major General Sanaullah, General Officer Commanding for Malakand division, and Lt Col Tauseef Ahmed during an attack on the military convoy in Swat.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the attack. The police later claimed that the suspect behind the attack, Abdul Rahim alias Raes, was arrested in March this year during an operation in Barawal, near the Pak-Afghan border.

The ISPR said that those convicted were involved in sectarian attacks in Mastung, killing of civilians and security personnel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, suicide attack in Nowshehra and the IED attack on military convoy in Swat.

One terrorist has also been awarded life imprisonment, DawnNews quoted the ISPR as saying.

The military statement did not disclose when the sentencing was done. There are currently nine military courts in the country. The army chief recently agreed to increase the number of tribunals in Karachi.

Political parties had unanimously agreed over the issue of setting up military courts to tackle terrorism cases in the country following the gruesome attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, following which the Parliament passed the 21st constitutional amendment to set up the said courts.

The apex court did however keep the power to review sentences in certain cases, where it feels the condition of fair trial is not met.

The ISPR later shared the details of the convicts, which are as follows:

• Said Zaman Khan s/o Said Nawaz Khan. The convict was an active member of Harkatul Jehad-i-Islami and was found involved in attacks on military in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which resulted in death of six soldiers, causing injuries to five soldiers and damage to government property.

• Obaid Ullah s/o Muhammad Azam Baloch. The convict was an active member of Harkatul Jehad-i-Islami and was involved in attacks on military in KP which resulted in the death of two soldiers and injured 18 others. A cache of explosives, and firearms were also recovered from Obaid’s possession.

• Mehmood s/o Khawaza Khan, an active member of TTP, was found involved in attacking security personnel in KP, killing two soldiers and injuring 13 others. He admitted his offences before the magistrate and trial court and was awarded death sentence.

• Qari Zubair Muhammad s/o Sakhi Muhammad, an active member of TTP, was involved in abetting a suicidal attack on a mosque in Nowshera in which five people were killed and 81 others injured.

• Rab Nawaz s/o Shahi Room, an active member of TTP, was involved in killing of two civilians, processing firearms and abetting attack on military in Peshawar which resulted in death of two soldiers and caused severe injuries to another.

• Muhammad Sohail s/o Zahoor Ahmed, an active member of TTP, was involved in abetting attack on Bannu jail, owing to which, large number of terrorists managed to escape from the jail and also resulted in injuries to two police constables and a soldier of frontier constabulary.

• Muhammad Imran s/o Muhammad Hanif was found involved in sectarian killings in Mastung which resulted in death of 27 persons. He was also found involved in attacking security personnel, possessing fire-arms and explosives.

• Aslam Khan s/o Rozi Khan, an active member of TTP, was charged with killing four persons including a soldier and injuring nine others.

• Jameel ur Rehman s/o Sher Rehman, an active member of TTP (Swat), was involved in attacking military convoy which killed Maj General Sana Ullah. He was also involved in kidnapping and slaughtering the law enforcement officials.

• Jamshed Raza s/o Allah Ditta, an active member of Harkatul Jehad-i-Islami, was involved in killing of two soldiers and possessing fire arms and explosives.

The ISPR further said that all the convicts were civilians and they admitted to their offences before the magistrate and the trial court, following which they were awarded death sentences except Jamshed, who was given sentence of imprisonment for life .