Militants murder 20 kidnapped levies men

The men had been kidnapped from the Koi Hasankhel area after their checkposts had been stormed.

PESHAWAR: Of the 22 levies officials abducted from three checkposts in Frontier Region Peshawar (FR) on December 27, at least 20 of these were murdered early on Sunday morning in Jabai, Express News reported.

AC Peshawar Habibullah Arif confirmed the incident before telling Express News that they have managed to recover the bodies of the dead.

Arif added that the injured levies man had received a bullet wound to the head and was in critical condition. He though could not confirm reports about a second levies man who apparently escaped relatively unhurt.

Talking about efforts to recover the men, the official said that FATA security agencies were working for their release in addition to convening a jirga of influential local elders who were given till Monday to recover the men.

Arif said that the elders were deep in negotiations with the militants earlier in the evening, but a few hours after that news of the mass murder reached.

Express News correspondent Jahangir Shahzad said that the levies official who was not wounded, had reportedly managed take his injured comrade to the main road from where a passing vehicle was convinced to take him to the Lady Reading Hospital.

The levies men had been kidnapped two nights ago from the Koi Hasankhel area when nearly 200 militants stormed three checkposts. Two levies officials were killed in that attack but their comrades were kidnapped.

The following day, the local FR political administration convened a jirga of the elders. At this jirga, the locals were given two days to recover the abducted men under the local area responsibility arrangement.

However, early on Sunday morning, the levies’ force captors chose to execute them.