Sad times: A candelight vigil in Lahore for students killed in the school attack. Photo: Reuters

Peshawar: Pakistan has hung two convicted terrorists in its first executions in six years and its security forces have killed more than 50 suspected militants.

The hardline action comes in the wake of Tuesday's Taliban school massacre that left 149 people dead.

Condolences: Friends of a student killed in the attack offer prayers at his grave in Peshawar. Photo: AP

The bloody rampage in the north-western city of Peshawar brought international condemnation and promises of swift, decisive action from Pakistan's political and military leaders.

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Pakistan's de facto foreign minister Sartaj Aziz said the attack on the army-run school was his country's own "mini 9/11" and a game changer in its fight against terror.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif relinquished the six-year ban on the death penalty in terror-related cases two days after the school attack.

Two men identified as senior militants were hanged at the prison in the city of Faisalabad, the officials said, even as human rights advocates expressed concerns about potential legal abuses in the name of counterterrorism efforts.

Aqil, who uses the name Doctor Usman, was convicted for an attack on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and Arshad Mehmood for his involvement in a 2003 assassination attempt on former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.

Officials said there would be up to 10 more executions in the coming days.

Rights campaign group Amnesty International estimates Pakistan has more than 8000 prisoners on death row.

The United Nations called for Pakistan to reconsider, saying "the death penalty has no measurable deterrent effect on levels of insurgent and terrorist violence" and "may even be counter-productive".

The Pakistan military said it killed 62 militants in airstrikes and clashes near the border, mostly in the Khyber agency, a tribal area, on Thursday and Friday. The fighting was an indication the Taliban's operations have continued to spread in response to the continuing military operation in the nearby North Waziristan region, which had long been the most concentrated centre of militant power in Pakistan.

The army has been waging a major offensive against longstanding Taliban and other militant strongholds on the Afghan border for the past six months.

After the school attack, senior Afghan and Pakistani officials reaffirmed their commitment to work together against the Pakistani Taliban on both sides of the border. Militant hide-outs in the rugged and remote Pashtun tribal areas that span both countries have long been a point of tension, with Afghanistan and Pakistan each accusing the other of sheltering militant proxies.

 Army Chief General Raheel Sharif said the attack had renewed the determination to push for the militants' "final elimination".

In the southern city of Karachi on Friday, a suspected local Taliban commander and three cadres were also killed during a raid by government paramilitary personnel.

The death toll from Tuesday's attack rose to 149 on Friday as a critically wounded student succumbed to his injuries.

Pakistani officials also reported the arrest of at least four people in Punjab province in connection with the school attacks, although few details were given about their possible roles. DawnNews reported that the suspects were connected to at least one of the cellphone SIM cards used by the gunmen during the attack.

The atrocity was already the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history, surpassing the 139 killed in bomb blasts targeting former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

AFP, New York Times