A photographer inside a classroom at an army-run school that was attacked by Taliban militants in Peshawar this week. Source: AFP

Since the violence at a school in Pakistan’s northwest on Wednesday sparked cries for retribution, the military has struck targets in the Khyber tribal region and ­approved the death penalty for six convicted terrorists.

The response came as the self-proclaimed organiser of the ­Peshawar massacre vowed in a video that his fighters would ­attack more civilian targets — as retribution for the women and children killed in the government offensive. The military said it had carried out airstrikes and ground operations on Thursday and yesterday in the Khyber agency.

Ground forces killed 10 militants while jets killed 17. A further 32 terrorists were killed by security forces in an ambush in Tirah valley in Khyber as they headed to the Afghan border, the military said. Three members of the security forces were hurt in the shootout, it said, adding that the “fleeing terrorists left behind bodies of their accomplices”.

Khyber agency is one of two main areas in the country’s northwest where the Pakistani military has been trying to root out militants. Khyber borders Peshawar, where the school raid happened. The other area is the North Waziristan, where the military launched a massive operation in June.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif signed death warrants of six “hardcore terrorists” convicted and sentenced to death by military courts, the army spokesman General Asim Bajwa said in a Twitter post yesterday.

It was unclear when the military planned to hang the six men, but authorities generally move quickly once death warrants are signed. Executions are ­usually carried out at prisons under the supervision of army officers. The news comes after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced he would lift a moratorium on executions in terrorism-related cases.

Khalifa Omar Mansoor, named by the Pakistani Taliban as the man who organised the ­Peshawar attack, appeared in a video that was uploaded to a site used by militants. Mansoor said the group would continue to strike civilians in ­revenge for Pakistani military operations in North Waziristan. He said ordinary Pakistanis had disregarded the plight of residents there.

Pakistan’s security forces say they are focused on taking out the Taliban, but some civilian casualties are inevitable. They deny there have been large-scale civilian casualties.

“This is something we cannot accept anymore, and if you continue to target our women and children, then your children will not be safe anymore,” said Mansoor. “We announce that we will not discriminate in our attacks any longer, and will be as unconcerned as you are.”

According to Pakistani security experts, Mansoor is the head of the Pakistani Taliban chapter that originates from the tribal region of Darra Adam Khel, in northwest Pakistan. The group grabbed international headlines in 2009 when it beheaded a kidnapped Polish engineer.

“I want to tell the Pakistan government, and the directors, teachers and students of the army’s affiliated institutions, that you are the ones strengthening this un-­Islamic democratic system,” he said. “It is these institutions that graduate future generals, brigadiers and majors, who then kill ... innocent tribal people.”

AP, The Wall Street Journal