US urges Pak to probe video showing apparent execution

US urges Pakistan to investigate videos showing alleged extra-judicial executions, army dismisses allegations

The United States is urging Pakistan to investigate video clips on the internet that appear to show Pakistani soldiers summarily executing six blindfolded young men.

"We have raised this issue with ... the Pakistani government," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a briefing Thursday. "We ... have encouraged them to investigate it fully," he said. "We take all allegations of human rights violations... very seriously. Human rights and the issue of extra-judicial killings has been a part of our ongoing conversation... with Pakistan," Crowley said. "It's been recorded in our previous human rights reports, and we are awaiting further information from Pakistan," he said.

One video clip on the Site Intelligence Group website showed men carrying rifles and wearing military uniforms and helmets line up six blindfolded men in long robes, hands apparently bound behind their backs. The men in uniform stepped back from the young men and opened fire on them. After they dropped to the ground, one of the uniformed men fired shots into their crumpled bodies.

The second video just showed the apparent execution. Site said the video is being distributed on militant forums online and has a militant narrator alleging that Pakistani soldiers are firing upon innocent Muslims in Swat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan army dismisses extra judicial killing allegations

Pakistan Army has dismissed allegations of extra-judicial killings and termed the videos claiming to show soldiers gunning down blindfolded men as fake.

“No Pakistani Army soldier or officer has been involved in activity of this sort,” said Maj Gen Athar Abbas, a spokesperson for the Pakistani Army.

Human rights groups that have previously accused the army of extra-judicial killings have told the BBC they cannot confirm the authenticity of the footage.