Pakistan's army chief confirms 11 Taliban to be hanged

Pakistan's army chief gave the go ahead to the death sentences of 11 members of the Taliban, including those behind the murder of officers investigating the slaughter of ten foreign mountaineers.

The 11 were tried by military courts in closed-door trials. Pakistan started trials for those suspected of terrorism after lifting a moratorium on the death penalty following a massacre at a school in Peshawar that left 150 people, mostly children, dead in late 2014.

In cases of capital punishment handed down by military courts, the army chief is required to confirm the sentences. A Pakistani army statement late on Tuesday said Gen. Raheel Sharif signed off on the sentences.

It was not immediately known when the executions would take place. The 11 have the right to appeal.

Four of the Taliban militants confessed to killing a police chief and two senior army officers in a 2013 attack in northern Pakistani district of Chilas, the statement said.

The three officers were shot and killed during an investigation into an earlier Taliban attack, which killed nine foreign climbers at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, one of the tallest peaks in the world.

The June 2014 attack on climbers at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan's second highest mountain, negatively affected tourism in Pakistan.

Pakistan is home to five of 14 mountains, which rise over 8,000 metres and attract dozens of daredevils every year. Mountaineering expeditions are also a source of income for hundreds of local villagers.

So far, some 207 Taliban militant suspects have gone on trial before military courts, and verdicts for 88 of them have been announced.

The Pakistani Taliban and allied local and foreign militant groups have been waging a war on the state for over a decade, killing tens of thousands of people.

Human rights groups have raised concerns over proceedings before military courts, which are off limits to the media and the public.