Pakistan still hunting Peshawar school massacre plotters

The Pakistani army is still searching for six militants it says helped carry out December's massacre at a school in Peshawar, in which 150 people died.

Major General Asim Bajwa said 27 were involved the attack, nine of whom had been killed and 12 captured. The killed are believed to include all of the gunmen who stormed the school.

He said Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah had masterminded the attack.

Since the massacre, teachers have been given permission to carry guns.

Security has been stepped up in the region, and a new combat group has been formed to tackle the Taliban.

Relatives of the killed children have held regular protests, demanding justice for their loved ones and more information about the attack.

Gen Bajwa said most of the plotters were Pakistani nationals who had planned the attack in the border area with Afghanistan.

So far, six suspects have been arrested in Afghanistan and six in Pakistan.

It was not clear whether the suspects held in Afghanistan had been handed over. However, Gen Bajwa thanked the Afghans for their co-operation.

The group of attackers cut through a wire fence at Peshawar's Army School on 16 December before launching an attack on an auditorium where children were taking a lesson in first aid.

The gunmen, who were wearing bomb vests, then went from room to room shooting pupils and teachers in a siege that lasted eight hours.

Some 133 children and 17 adults were killed before the army retook control.

The army announced later that they had killed all of the militants involved in the attack.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban loyal to Mullah Fazlullah said they carried out the attack in revenge for the army's offensive against them in North Waziristan.