Pakistan Taliban kill 15 kidnapped tribal police

[dbt]

Source: BBC

At least 15 members of a tribal security force have been found shot dead in a volatile area of Pakistan's north-west, officials say.

The men were abducted last month near North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold.

A Taliban spokesman told the BBC the killings were to avenge an army offensive in a neighbouring area.

The killings come amid reports that Taliban factions have agreed to halt attacks on Pakistani forces in order to focus on US-led troops in Afghanistan.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16421857

[Rhiannon12866]

1. More: Militants say they killed 15 Pakistani paramilitary troops

REPORTING FROM ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Militants on Thursday claimed responsibility for killing 15 Pakistani paramilitary troops this week that they kidnapped from a checkpost near the Afghan border in December, dealing a serious setback to potential peace talks between Islamabad and the country’s homegrown insurgency.

The bodies of the men were found in the village of Shewa in North Waziristan, a tribal region that serves as a stronghold for several Pakistani and Afghan insurgent groups, local officials said. They were members of the Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary force that patrols Pakistan’s volatile tribal districts along the Afghan border.

They had been abducted by gunmen Dec. 22. One soldier was killed at the time, but seven escaped. The Pakistani Taliban said the executions were in retaliation for a Pakistani military operation in the Khyber tribal region Jan. 1 that killed 12 Taliban militants. Among them was Qari Kamran, a Taliban commander who headed up the insurgent group’s operations in the northwest city of Nowshera.

The Taliban also claimed Pakistani soldiers detained women and children belonging to militants’ families during the Khyber operation. “Both Sharia law and local traditions do not permit the killing of mujahedin fighters and the arrests of women and children,” the Taliban said in a statement released in North Waziristan.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/01/militants-say-they-killed-15-pakistani-paramilitary-troops.html