Re: Taliban Sharia: More beheadings
Taliban’s independence day gift to Pakistan. They like their victims to be headless because they themselves are brainless.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070814/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistanunrest_070814134631
Kidnapped Pakistani soldier’s headless corpse found
2 hours, 15 minutes ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - The headless body of a kidnapped Pakistani soldier was found near a town market Tuesday, raising the stakes in a military hostage crisis on the day the country marked its 60th anniversary.
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Officials said suspected pro-Taliban militants beheaded one of 16 kidnapped Pakistani soldiers and threatened to kill more unless the authorities release 10 of their men.
The headless body of the soldier from the paramilitary Frontier Corps was found near the main market early Tuesday in Jandola, a town near the lawless South Waziristan tribal district that borders Afghanistan.
A note found near the body warned that other soldiers would be murdered if the demands were not met, local official Latifur Rehman told AFP.
Unidentified gunmen had abducted the 16 last Thursday as they travelled in civilian clothes from Jandola Camp to a nearby base in South Waziristan.
The militants, believed to be from the local Mehsud tribe, said they would swap the soldiers for their 10 detained colleagues, three of whom are held on charges of plotting bomb blasts and suicide attacks, the official said.
The kidnappers had given no deadline and had not made direct contact with authorities.
The discovery of the corpse coincided with the expiry of a three-day deadline for the soldiers’ safe return, he said, adding that if they were not released, the tribe would be ordered to pay a heavy fine under local tribal law.
The Mehsud are the dominant Pashtun tribe of the area, part of Pakistan’s restive tribal region where Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants are said to have established bases for planning attacks.
Mehsud tribesmen are suspected of supporting the Taliban militia, which has regrouped in the region since being driven from power in Afghanistan by a US invasion in late 2001.
Escalating Taliban violence has elicited accusations from Washington and Kabul that military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is not doing enough to eradicate the militant threat.
Violence has escalated in the tribal region after pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan renounced a 10-month-old peace accord with the government on July 15, days after scores of people were killed as troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad.
Celebrations to mark Independence Day were subdued in the Waziristan region, where tribal elders face intimidation by militants.
Residents said some markets were open but few people were on the street and a reception to mark the occasion was poorly attended.
Pakistan has deployed some 90,000 troops along the Afghan border to hunt down Taliban and Al-Qaeda fugitives.
Separately, a civilian was killed and three soldiers wounded in a gun battle between troops and suspected Islamic militants in North Waziristan, a security official said.
Clashes broke out late Monday after militants launched almost simultaneous attacks on at least four security posts, said an official.
Troops retaliated and pounded suspected militant positions with light and heavy artillery, he said, adding three paramilitary soldiers were wounded.
A civilian was killed when hit by a shell amid the firing outside the main shopping area of Miranshah town.
Militants Tuesday fired a rocket on the main army base in Miranshah, but caused no casualties.
Meanwhile in Karachi blasts brought down one electricity pylon and damaged another, cutting power to several towns and villages, police said, adding that there were no casualties.
Separately, in Dera Ghazi Khan, a southern city in Punjab province, a home-made bomb ripped through an auto-rickshaw, wounding the driver and a passenger, local police chief Inkisah Khan said.
Residents said the blast happened minutes after an Independence Day rally passed the rickshaw terminal and that it blew the vehicle to pieces.
Unexploded home-made bombs were also found near power lines in a district outside the city, police said, adding that they suspected separatist rebels who have been fighting for greater autonomy in neighbouring Baluchistan.
A man was killed and three others injured on Sunday after a blast took down an electricity pylon in the industrial town of Hub, bordering Karachi.