[JURIST] Afghanistan National Security Forces reported the arrest of five men on Saturday believed to have helped support the massacre that took place in December at the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan. The attack further strained Afghanistan and Pakistan’s already tense relationship, but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani [BBC profile] has pledged to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts [WSJ report] with Pakistan in the wake of the school attack. The men, none of whom were citizens of Afghanistan, were arrested near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border [AP report].

These arrests are the latest in a series of anti-terrorism government efforts in the wake of the Peshawar school massacre [JURIST report] by the Pakistani Taliban in December, which killed 134 children along with 16 staff members. Earlier this month, Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain signed into law a constitutional amendment establishing military courts [JURIST report] for the prosecution of civilian terrorism-related cases. The president’s signature comes just one day after the Pakistan National Assembly [official website] passed the law unopposed [JURIST report], securing the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. In response to the attack, Pakistan reinstated the death penalty [JURIST report] in terrorism-related cases last month. Also in December, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein condemned the “savage extremism” of the Taliban insurgents behind the school massacre.