Peshawar: Taliban militants have released a
video showing the execution of 15 Pakistani soldiers whose
bodies were found earlier this month after they were kidnapped
in northwestern Pakistan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility
for the killings.
The 15 FC (Frontier Constabulary) personnel were
kidnapped late last month after a night-time raid on a
checkpoint in the northwestern town of Tank.
Pakistan`s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border,
including North Waziristan, are rife with homegrown insurgents
and are strongholds of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.
The 2.38 minute video, a copy of which was obtained bya n agency, was released today and shows the blindfolded soldiers
sitting in three rows on a hillside.
The soldiers had their hands tied behind their backs and
were flanked by two masked gunmen.
A middle-aged soldier, who identifies himself as Babar
Khan, says in the video that he was captured with the others
by Taliban militants who stormed their outpost late at night.
Then an unidentified Taliban commander wearing a leather
jacket appears and says the group was taking revenge for the
killing of 12 Taliban fighters in Khyber tribal district.
"We warn the government of Pakistan to stop killing our
people whom they have arrested and if they continue to do so
then Taliban will (kill) them like this," he says, before he
starts shooting the captured soldiers with a Kalashnikov
rifle, raising the slogan Allah-o-Akbar (God is great).
Other militants join him in shooting the captured
soldiers.
FC commandant Majeed Khan Marwat said that he had
received the video and said that his men had been "martyred".
Officials said that the men were killed in Shawa, a small
town in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan
border.
PTI
