World Bulletin/News Desk

Pakistani authorities executed two convicted militants Wednesday, raising the total number of executed to nine since a Taliban attack that killed more than 100 children on Dec. 16.

Two members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group were hanged in a high-security jail in the northeastern city of Multan.

Ahmed Ali was executed for killing three Shia-minority civilians in 1998, making him the first militant to be executed for targeting civilians rather than security forces.

Ghulam Shabbir was found guilty of killing a jail superintendent and a guard.

The other seven militants executed in the past three weeks were all involved in attacks on security forces.

Pakistan rejected global criticism in ending a six-year moratorium on capital punishment at the behest of the country's powerful army following the Peshawar school attack, which killed 134 children.

According to government statistics, nearly 8,000 convicts are awaiting the death penalty in Pakistani jails.

The South Asian nuclear Muslim state had imposed an unofficial ban on capital punishment on the demand of the European Union in exchange for trade and business benefits in 2008.

Officials have said more convicts would be executed, although many in Pakistan have been critical of the campaign, saying the executions are intended to divert attention from the failure to satisfy public demands to find those behind the Dec. 16 attack on the school.