HRW Urges Pakistan to Stop Executions in Response to Peshawar Tragedy

MOSCOW, December 20 (Sputnik) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned Pakistan's explicit reaction to the Taliban's attack on Peshawar School and has called on the country's government to stop executions of those imprisoned for terrorism, the watchdog stated on its official website Saturday.

"Pakistan's government has chosen to indulge in vengeful blood-lust instead of finding and prosecuting those responsible for the horrific Peshawar attack. The government's death penalty spree is a craven politicized reaction to the Peshawar killings that will do nothing to bring the attackers to justice," HRW quoted its deputy Asia director Phelim Kine as saying.

On December 19, two prisoners convicted for terrorism were executed in Pakistan.

According to HRW, Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada said that those executions were aimed at boosting "the morale of the nation" and that more executions were to be expected.

On Tuesday, Taliban gunmen attacked a school in Pakistan's Peshawar city. The terror attack resulted in the deaths of 148 people, most of them children. The Taliban later claimed that the attack was made in retaliation for the recent advancement of Pakistan's armed forces against the extremist group.