Taliban release video of slaughtered Pakistani soldiers
The beheading, claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, took place on Sunday when Taliban militants from Afghanistan infiltrated into the northwestern district of Upper Dir.
A senior security official in the northwestern regional capital Peshawar on Wednesday confirmed to AFP that a total of 17 soldiers were targeted by the attackers who came from the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.
"Six troops were killed on the first day, then another seven were slaughtered the next day," the official said.
"Four were missing and now they have also been beheaded," he said.
Dir, a key border transit route, neighbours Swat valley where Pakistan defeated a local Taliban insurgency in 2009.
Intelligence officials blamed the attack on loyalists of cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who had fled to Afghanistan after losing control of Swat to the army.
The video prepared by the Taliban's media wing shows 17 severed heads of soldiers placed on a white sheet while masked men stand behind clutching assault rifles captured from the soldiers.
Local security officials confirmed that all the victims were Pakistani soldiers.
"God has given us a great victory, we have killed them all. Four of the heads you can see are from Frontier Corps (paramilitary force), the rest are from the army," an unseen commentator said in the video.
The army said more than 100 militants "from a safe haven across the border" had attacked troops on patrol. It claimed to have killed 14 militants.
The army "has strongly protested with their counterparts across the border for not taking action against miscreants present in safe havens in Afghanistan", a military official said.
The foreign ministry summoned the deputy head of the Afghan mission to lodge a formal protest against "the intrusion of militants from the Afghan side into Pakistani territory", officials said.
The Afghan diplomat was informed that "the government of Afghanistan should take appropriate measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in the future", it said.
Pakistani troops have for years been fighting local Taliban but have resisted US pressure to carry out a sweeping offensive against Afghan Taliban fighters in its North Waziristan tribal area.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have long blamed each other for Taliban violence plaguing both sides of their porous, mountainous border.
Pakistan says rebels have regrouped in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan and US officials want Pakistan to eliminate Taliban and al Qaeda-linked havens used to launch attacks in Afghanistan. But neither seem to have made progress.
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Let us see how Difa-e-Pakistan Council reacts to this atrocity and the one in Quetta (the murder of 14 Hazara Shias by LeJ). This incident has all elements that they claim to have stood up against: Agression from across the border, violation of our sovereignty, unprovoked attack at a checkpost of our armed forces, and brutal loss of life. If they fail to condemn this incident, then every participant in the DPC bandwagon should be exposed as Taliban sympathizer and partners with the enemy slaughtering our troops.
Somebody tell Rehman Malik that Pak is failing to control it's own citizens.
@US CENTCOM: You can head to Iraq Body Count site and see how much US and accomplices have killed only in Iraq on WMD lie.
No human can be as brutal as these cowards who kill their captured prisoners and display their heads like on a platter. Just think… They not only killed 17 individuals but the trauma and torture they have inflicted on the 17 families and their friends. I am surprised to read that even after watching the video or reading about it anyone would support these cowards. Every Pakistani should be enraged today. I am!
Taliban is a cancer that needs to be removed immediately. We see them destroy families and homes daily yet we seem to be nonchalant about it. It is time for all to demand that our governments should get together and once and for all remove this cancer that has been plaguing our society for a long time now. We have seen much success against them in the past but the unfortunate slowdown in our cooperation has given them some leeway and they are regrouping and attacking our soldiers and civilians on both sides of the border. We need to seriously sit down and come up with a strategy to completely wipe out the evil from both sides of the border so children are not orphaned, wives are not widowed, and parents do not have to outlive their children. Unless we resolve our differences and work together, cowards like the TTP will keep inflicting wounds on innocent people of the region.
LTC T.G. Taylor DET-United States Central Command www.centcom.mil/ur
@True Muslim Paki: "Only if we listened to Imran Khan sir, & had we negotiated and withdrawn from frontier regions, this wouldn`t have happened."
So we should negotiate with these murderers and withdraw from the territories they have usurped? You mean we should surrender to them? Talking with them is surrendering to them.
The day we start listening to Imran Khan on matters of foreign policy will be the end of Pakistan.
Its a pity that, what these animals do is branded as shariah. Well then we dont want Shariah.
The beheading and display of severed heads are disgusting and extremely disturbing. However much the Pakistani Taliban resent their government and want change, it's not a way to win sympathy from the international community.
Headline says Taliban, article says Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Can we have fair reporting or this is too much to ask?
Will somebody tell us if this is the good Taliban or the bad Taliban? The lines are blurred.
@Hijjadah: taliban as a blessing??? u joking?? illitrate mullahs who dont allow polio vaccinations, kill people in cities, behead soldiers mercilessly and try to be friend with india... u call them blessing???? they r disgrace to humanity and islam. give me a single example where worst enemies of islam were captured and beheaded in captivity
no taliban its american and natos....american taliban..
@ Chaudry Talibans supply lines
Never heard of it....
@True Muslim Paki: you want to negotiate with people who mercilessly behead our soldiers??? and you call urself true muslim paki????
on a moderated pakistani forum, should indians be allowed to gloat over death and tragedy? to me, their celebratory remarks for our martyrs are an insult to pakistan and the families of these young sons of pakistan.
i dont know how men at their best caught by these mullas and slice like chickens. our army ratings is not so bad among the world armies. lebonani fighters were less in number in lebonan israel war but they were never captured in groups and get slaughter like pakistani trained soldiers. this insult by Taliban and our army is still at ease something is definitely going wrong. if they cant handle these stupid taliban what else they are best at. may they rest in peace .
It is ironic that there never is a widespread condemnation of such atrocities in Pakistan. Instead, people start blaming India. Because in a country of fools, where floods are attributed to Indian cloud seeding, how difficult it is to have these fools believe that India is behind the killings of your soldiers?
It's not rocket science to understand that TTP is India's enemy before they are Pakistan's.
@murali: the current ones were killed by 'Strategic Assets' and can be therefore considered 'Collateral Damage'.
If just 10 taliban attacking hotel in Kabul can be from Pakistan, where are 100 taliban who attack across the border from? NATO is clearly supporting TTP based on this fact alone.
@True Muslim Paki: U must be kidding rite. U & ur leader is delussional. Talking to these animals, sitting in Lahore or London is easier said than done. Do u think they wil listen to your point of view? If you think so then you r sadly mistaken.
Imran Khan doesn't know what he is talking, he lives in a world of fantasy, the real world is not so black & white!
These terrorists behead our poor soldiers and we see no outrage like Kerry-Lugar Bill or Salala. How long would we continue to let these terrorists shed the blood of our citizens and keep taking it on the chin? This is not an isolated incident or a mistake it has become a routine from the terrorists. When was the last time any Western country has shown this much brutality and pinpoint murders of our citizens? Yet we stay quiet, why? Where are the rightwing leaders like NS, IK and JI?
The army “has strongly protested with their counterparts across the border for not taking action against miscreants present in safe havens in Afghanistan”, a military official said.
TIT FOR TAT !!!
Talibans supply lines should be cutoff just like nato
Isn't TTP , as per its leader, 1st line of defense of the Pak army, against India ? So is there now civil war inside the Pak army between its 1st line of defense and 3rd line of defense ?
where are the political and religious parties now.... why are they mum against this brutal act. 24 soldiers were killed at Salala check post and thier livers were worth protest for whom we are protesting for the last many months. Now where are the so called parties, why are they not raising their voices. This dual policy will one day transform Pakistan into Afghanistan.
So, you guys still think there's a good Taliban and a bad Taliban?
Secondly, where is the hypocritical right-wing now? The one that deems everyone a traitor or an agent of "Amreeka" or India. Where are the protests? Is there no one in Pakistan brave enough to protest against these people?
This is horrible, just horrible.
I wonder where Difa-e-Pakistan council is now.
@murali: Talibans are curse. they drink human blood and eat US DOLLARS.They are disloyal to their mother i.e.soil and stigma on Islam.They are the most coward species found in tribal area .
why no one burns mullah fazlullah's effigy for killing innocent pakistani soldiers .. such hypocrisy on part of all right wing extremist parties (extremist in their views as they can only see america violating pak sovereignty) including jamaat and clean have jamaat a.k.a PTI
NATO arnt the perpetrators so no one cares.
Taliban is Allah's blessing for Pakistan. They want the masses to follow sharia and not succumb to corrupt army or government. This killing is allowed as part of jihad and Muslims all over the world should support it.
To begin my deep sympathies to all those who were martyred and may God give their families the strength to bear this loss. I would however, like to point out that our army needs to support these men. Taking such a major portion of the budget, the least a tax paying citizen like me expects is to have systems in place to preempt and prevent a 100 man cross border movement. Our men are not there to be slaughtered like sheep while those above brigadier level make money. If you wont spare money for health and education at least care for these sons of the nation. How could you not know that the summer would bring a repeat of last years cross border raids?
First of all and foremost, shame to the commanders, under whose command these men were. Why it always happen that our soldiers, who are supposedly professionally trained fighters, are killed as sitting ducks. Yes, Nato troops also get killed, but NEVER in this many number in one raid. Why our troops are found and hunted like some pigeons. What is the training these men getting. How many times it has happened that our brothers, our fellow muslims whom we should only cajole and never criticize, have attacked a post of either army or of law enforcement personnel! Why you are being stung from the same hole over and over again? Lastly, as these men are killed by Talibans, no one will discuss it and fume about it in either the talk shows or in the newspaper statements. God bless Pakistan.
And we are still supporting these barbarians?
These animals will be dealt with.
US has always been accusing that our Army/ISI is involved in supporting the militants.
Now what US would have to say on the killings of our Army Soldiers?
The US perception is far from ground reality. Had our Army/ISI would have been supporting the militants, our Army Soldiers would have NOT been killed.
May Al-Mighty Allah rest their souls in peace. Ameen.
Only if we listened to Imran Khan sir, & had we negotiated and withdrawn from frontier regions, this wouldn`t have happened.
Is their blood and soul any inferior to the ones of SALALA
what Islam tells us to display our enemies with such cruelty? Taliban are not muslims, they are menace to the society but the sad thing is most of brainwashed Pakistanis will still call them brave and true and will call any one who speaks against them as infidels. It is high time all Political parties like PTI, PPP, MQM & ANP to take up a firm stand against extremists.