Pakistan hangs 4 militants involved in attacking former president

ISLAMABAD - Four militants involved in attacking former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf were executed in the country's east Faisalabad city on Sunday, local media reported.

The militants, whose death penalties were signed by the country 's Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, were hanged to death in a prison in Faisalabad, a main city in the country's east Punjab province.

Musharraf, the then president, narrowly escaped when two suicide car bombers rammed their vehicle into his motorcade on Dec. 25, 2003, in Rawalpindi.

Fifteen people including soldiers were killed in the attack which was the second attempt on Musharraf's life that month.

Following the attack several militants including the four hanged Sunday were arrested.

The four militants were sentenced to death earlier by the military court, however, the government was keeping a moratorium on death penalty since 2008, due to which their execution could not take place earlier.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday announced the lifting of the 2008 moratorium on executions in Pakistan.

The decision came in the wake of a Taliban attack on an army school which killed 132 schoolchildren and nine staff members.

As Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved implementation of the executions in terrorism-related cases, the federal government has reportedly asked all provincial governments to collect details of all convicts on death row.

Officials say that security has also been tightened for jails across Pakistan in view of the possible hanging of the convicted militants.