Ex-TTP members behead man
ISPR could not be reached to confirm whether the beheaded individual was indeed a Pakistani soldier
Former TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid. PHOTO: INP
An online video released Saturday purports to show former militants of the Pakistani Taliban pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and beheading a man they identify as a Pakistani soldier, the Associated Press reported.
An official of the Inter-Services Public Relations could not be reached to confirm whether the beheaded individual was indeed a Pakistani soldier.
The video shows former Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid along with dozens of other militants in a wooded area. Shahid already announced the decision in a video posted online and sent to media persons in Pakistan and posted online in October.
Taliban leaders from Orakzai, Kuram, Khyber agencies, Peshawar and Hangu district are among those who have parted ways with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and joined the IS.
Other militant leaders who identify themselves as from Afghanistan and Pakistan also pledge their support to the Islamic State group. At the end of the video, the militants behead a man they identified as a Pakistani soldier.
The SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based terrorism monitor, said the video was released by the Islamic State group on Twitter and jihadi forums.
The video is sure to raise concerns about whether the Islamic State group has found support in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region already awash with dozens of militant groups, AP reported. Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan owe their allegiance to Mullah Omar, a cleric who has led the Taliban since the 1990s and hasn't been publicly heard from for years.
The area where the video was shot was not identified but Taliban militants are known to operate in the rugged mountainous regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The militants frequently target Pakistani troops who have been carrying out missions in the country's northwest. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan's military or government.
The Islamic State group controls about a third of both Syria and Iraq. A US-led coalition is targeting the group in airstrikes. On Saturday, the US military said in a statement it carried out 12 strikes on the group in Syria and three strikes in Iraq, the AP report added. Eleven of the coalition airstrikes in Syria targeted Islamic State group positions around the border town of Kobani near Turkey.