Kidnappers beheaded in public by vigilante group

Kidnappers beheaded in public by vigilante group

PESHAWAR: Militants in Pakistan publicly beheaded six alleged kidnappers and lashed three others in an outbreak of vigilante violence yesterday.

The incidents were the latest in a series blamed on hardliners who are seeking to emulate Afghanistan's Taliban regime by introducing harsh Islamic laws and punishments.

In the lawless Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan, pro-Taliban rebels decapitated six members of a kidnapping-for-ransom gang after a blood-soaked feud, local government official Miraj Khan said.

It started when militants on Thursday night raided the house of the gang's chief in connection with the death of one of their colleagues, the official said.

The gang leader opened fire, killing four of the militants, but they later killed him and five of his family members, burned down his house and seized another six of his followers.

"The militants publicly beheaded all six of them while holding funeral prayers for their own colleagues," Miraj said.

Meanwhile, a hardline Islamic vigilante group lashed three alleged kidnappers in front of a crowd of 20,000 people in Matta, a town in the conservative Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province.

"Such punishments will deter others from committing crimes," hardline cleric Maulana Fazal Ullah said in his sermon before the lashings by the group which calls itself the Eagle Force.

A committee of clerics found the three men guilty of kidnapping two young girls and sentenced to 15, 25 and 30 lashes respectively, which were administered outside a religious school, Ullah said.

Police confirmed that the three men were publicly whipped but said that they were unable to take any action because Ullah had a large following of armed men.

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TAKE TWO:

Taliban execute 12 in revenge

By our correspondent GHALANAI: The local Taliban killed 12 persons in Dowayzai area of Pandyali Tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Friday to avenge the killing of four of their colleagues. Six of the dead had their throat slit. The Taliban also threatened the local people against offering their funeral prayers. Four Taliban were killed on Thursday while two others sustained bullet injuries during an armed clash with a local tribesman, Yusuf. To avenge the killings, the Taliban gunned down Yusuf Khan along with his five companions and kidnapped eight other persons, including two children of his family. They also set ablaze his house. The Taliban, after offering funeral prayers of their four slain colleagues, started slaughtering six of the kidnapped persons on Friday. Mercifully, they spared the two children. Two brothers of Yusuf Khan, Arif and Daulat, were among those who were slaughtered. The two others whose throats were cut were identified as Asad, a resident of Bajaur, and Shah Zameen, while the identity of the remaining two could not be ascertained. Bodies of the slain tribesmen were put in the open as the Taliban threatened the locals against offering their funeral prayers. The Taliban also torched the houses of their three other rivals. Meanwhile, Political Agent Mohmand Agency Dr Kazim Niaz held a meeting with tribal elders at Ghalanai Rest House. He asked the tribal elders to play their role in maintaining the law and order in their respective areas under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulations. He said that a Jirga of tribal elders would be convened soon after Eidul Fitr and the future line of action adopted to contain militancy in the tribal agency. AFP adds from Peshawar: A hard-line vigilante group publicly lashed three alleged kidnappers in front of a crowd of 20,000 people in the Swat valley on Friday, witnesses and police said. The crowd shouted “God is Great” as the men were whipped in the Matta town. “Such punishments will deter others from committing crimes,” hard-line cleric Maulana Fazalullah said in his sermon before the lashings by the group which calls itself the Eagle Force. The three men were found guilty of kidnapping two young girls by a committee of clerics and sentenced to 15, 25 and 30 lashes, respectively, which were administered outside a religious school, said the cleric. “The government is not punishing criminals and that is why the crime rate is rising,” he added. Police confirmed that three men were publicly whipped but said that they were unable to take any action because Fazalullah had a large following of armed men. “He has declared a war against the government and it is not the police’s job to fight a war,” a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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