ISLAMABAD -- Authorities made several arrests Sunday in the Taliban school attack that killed 148 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said.
"Quite a few suspects who were facilitators in one way or the other have been taken into custody," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said, adding that the interrogations were "moving ahead in a positive manner." He did not disclose the identities of those arrested or say how many there were.
Seven Taliban gunmen wearing explosives belts on Tuesday stormed into the military-run school and slaughtered 148 people, including 132 students. Another 121 students were wounded in the ensuing eight-hour siege of the school, located in an area where many military families live.
The group claims it fights to establish a ruling system based on its own harsh brand of Islam.
The Taliban say they attacked the school in revenge for an army operation against them in North Waziristan, launched in mid-June. The army says it has so far killed more than 1,200 militants in the operation.
In response to the attack, the government bombed the militants' hideouts in the country's tribal area along the Afghan border and lifted a ban on the execution of convicted terrorists.
Over the weekend, it acted after the ban was lifted, executing six men convicted on terrorism charges.
Two of the convicts were hanged Friday and another four Sunday, according to two Pakistani government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
All six belonged to local Pakistani militant groups and had turned against the state, and they were convicted for involvement in two attempts to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf. One was also convicted of leading a militant siege of the Pakistani army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in 2009.
Local militants have threatened attacks to avenge the hanged men.
Khan said Pakistan was at war with the militants. He appealed to the nation to help authorities in a countrywide crackdown on the insurgents.
Information for this article was contributed by Zaheer Babar of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/22/2014