At least 20 levies personnel were shot. PHOTO: FILE
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.
COMMENTS (44)
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'Country is passing through a very difficult phase says Kayani' Agreed, but are you not making it more difficult by not taking any action against these barbarians who are killing civilians and uniformed personnel almost on daily basis ???
Where is humanity Taliban call their self Muslim I think they sub human. Our politician are corrupt someone need to do something they are destroying our beautiful country.
Inna Lillahe Wa Inna Ilahe Rajeoon. May Allah Almighty rest their souls in Paradise. Ameen.
The GOP is giving too much laxity and leeway to these uncivilized and untrustworthy people. Why did Olaf Caroe eulogize them in the first place is beyond me. With few exceptions, the majority are uncouth and devoid of civility.
It is time Pakistan talks no more and get down to serious business with them. Salams
Here we go again our Innocent Public intelligent brains must be busy in making a conspiracy theory trolls from JI,JUI and PTI please comments and prove again that these Talibans are innocent as your leaders do always.
drop nuclear bomb on their hide outs,,,plz no more waste human lives,,use every ban weapons against them,,just like saddam hussain did with kurds,,people becoming mad on seeing this on daily basis,,,,,and also my humble request to media personal take up this issue and pressure govt to take action once for all.....dont debate pak india cricket takra...
Its a high time Pak army and Govt needs take honest and strict action against these terrorists, these half hearted approach not going to work any more. terrorists are not friends of any one. wake up!!
20 families will be grieving today. Nothing will give them solace. All this for what? If all these terrorists want is sharia law in Pakistan, so be it. The people of Pakistan also want the same thing. So, what is the fighting all about?
Pakistani army is waiting to attack tribals on orders fro their masters america. We muslims are not fools and understand this game being played to attack pashtuns.
Tragic. Military operation is needed to root these guys out asap.
No problem, lets talk. Or better yet Wait till america withdraws right appolgists. We have already sacrificed 40000, couple thousand more wouldn't hurt right. Moreover these Levies do not get same benefits as regular army,so they are like civilians. win-win I say.
Terrible tragedy! I hope these killers are brought to speedy justice. RIP the brave and the innocent. Government/Army of Pakistan, please please do something against these murderers.
How many times will these armed soldiers meekly surrender to the militants, only to be murdered after they drop their weapons??? Is someone telling them beforehand that they will be well treated if they just surrender, or have the reports of similar past incidents (and murders) not been reported to the men???
Better to go for operation,otherwise too late means too much powering militants......!
Negotiating with TAliban is only surrendering. They have no honesty and fairplay. Pakistan will become a waste land if it surrenders to Taliban.
What an outrage. And the Chief of the army says that we are facing a faceless enemy! For God's sake - the enemy is staring you in the eye, poking you, provoking you, and slowly dismantling the state. Mr. Kayani, with due respect, the enemy is NOT faceless. The enemy is TTP and their associated groups inside our own territory. All of us Pakistanis expect you to protect us and your own security forces from them. Other armies have gone to war to liberate or to avenge a single soldier! What will it take to wake up the Pakistani army's leadership to say enough is enough and annihilate these monsters?
General Kayani / Please take a lesson from the battle of Narahwaan!
What a tragedy! No words can express the frustration and sadness. We, so called atomic power are being slaughtered day and night. If this is not a wake-up call for us then forget our future. May Allah give courage to our impotent and coward leadership to wipe-out these extremist elements. All those who are still justify the actions of Talibans and all the mullas who directly or indirectly sympathetic to the extremists should also be dealt swiftly. Oh people of Pakistan,,, this is our war and the enemies are all those mullas and organizations who cultivated this crop. For God sake, open your eyes and eliminate these elements before they eliminate you. We need to eliminate all fanatic mullas, militant organizations and their sympathizer, without any ifs or buts. May Allah give us wisdom to come out from this curse.
My condolences go out to the families of the men murdered by these anti state criminals. These foreign funded cowards can only attack civilians and unarmed men to please their foreign masters. I am glad to see that all Pakistanis have united against their type of savagery which is why they are being defeated. All they can do are these type of cowardly attacks. It is becoming increasingly clear that such cowardly deeds are only the mark of desperation. God bless the Pakistani military and their ongoing efforts to protect against such criminals.
Its a high time Pak army and Govt needs take honest and strict action against these terrorists, these half hearted approach not going to work any more. terrorists are not friends of any one.
really sad
We must do an operation clean-up in troubled areas. Must clear the whole country from all insurgents. Must send all Afghans with their second generation back to their country. Must seal the borders completely with Afghanistan and establish check posts from all tribal areas. Must take over the tribal areas completely to establish the writ of the government at any cost. Anyone whether Pakistani or an insurgent should be removed from the way if a causing obstacles to these objectives. This is the only way to survive... Just dialogues and long term soft objectives cannot do any good. We are dealing with animals, not humans that we can change them... We need to finish them all... And we must!!!
I wonder what Pakistani army is waiting for? Gas their hideout and kill them all. Any politician who till talk of talk with militant is providing tacit support to these murderers.
This means war....If this dosen't warrant a full scale military operation than what does....Time is nigh that we finish this menace once and for all. The army should mobilize all its resources to fight on this front. Pakistan army is supposed to be one of the best. This is the real test....lets see what happens...i hope this incident is not swept under the carpet like many before it.
Do we still think that we should 'talk' to these savages?
I am afraid even as an Indian citizen it is my feeling that this action of the militants calls into question the very legitimacy of government in Pakistan, whether central or provincial. I am reminded of Mrs Hillary Clinton's words which were to the effect that if you rear snakes in your backyard, do not expect that they will bite only your neighbours. It is high time someone arose in Pakistan to say sponsoring terror whether inside or outside Pakistan is negation of the very concept of State. Pakistan needs to take early steps to stop its patronage of terror and to eliminate terror and terrorists from its soil. Failure to do so shall spell - in due time - the demise of the Pakistani State. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi, India, 30 Dec 2012, 0430 IST
These unfortunate bravehearts belonged to the only Islamic nuclear power.
Thank you Sunami Khan.
The land of pure getting pure-er day by day... Courtesy Zia ul haq
Do Pakistan need any further evidence to declare war against these international militants who have a very long list of crimes across boarders. No mercy operation should be started to eradicate taliban from the face of earth.
Lets make a check list:
1) Condemn such violence without reserve, "yeh musalmaan nahi ho saktai", "this is work of a hidden hand" do no service to the soldiers who died.The soldiers were not killed by a hidden hand but by battle hardened militants.
2) If TTP are CIA-Mossad-RAW funded then please also explain how do you expect to negotiate with them?
3) Pay your taxes, rather than posting "I have tears in my eyes" emotive statements, foot the bill to pay their salaries and pay for their supplies.
Time to send the gunship helicopters... Mow down houses who dare to fire a bullet.. That's the only answer these barbarians deserves.
Inna Lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un
Honestly, I have no real words to say except that this is deeply saddening, I cant imagine what the families of these brave soldiers are going through right now. Mothers have lost their sons, sisters their brothers and wives their husbands. Hopefully this will awaken the ones who live with their hands over their eyes and ears to support action against these barbarians!
First round of negotiations is completed.
Now Imran, instead of blaming terrorists, will say that troops got killed because of army's presence in FATA
i guess we need to seriously think how to solve the problems and how to involve citizens to help and show little selfness and help themselves to secure their area , their streets ad their cities by these khariji animals
shame...wake up Pak Militry. Use your all resources and eliminate the enemy without discrimination.
Pakistan is doomed!
Shabash. Don't do anything. First Shias and now most of these people killed must be Sunnis. It's true they kill Shias for their faith but Sunnis are also dying so they need to be outraged too. Speak up against talibans and their like minded terrorist parties.
RIP to victims and condolences to families. Yeh kia hon raha hai? Very sad. This is the result of importing violent ideology from Saudi Arabia that has infected our society. No one could have imagined in 1970's that Pakistan will come to such a day. Now that I think of it, Pakistan was much more modern and progressive in 1970's than today. I am not sure if we can even reverse this imported ideology anymore. It has penetrated deep into Pakistani society.
ANIMALS....How can anyone think of making peace with them?
Anything goes when your trying to build the Caliphate, right?
Inna Lilahi Wa Inna Ilahi Rajiun.
May Allah rest the departed souls in peace and give patience to their families. Do we still need to convene dialogue with these inhuman Talibans?
We will lose our beautiful jawans while repeating the saga of good taliban and bad taliban. may curse be upon them.
Do we need any more reasons to eliminate these people?
Another twenty good lives are lost to the alter of strategic depth and there seems to end to this useless sacrifices.