By IRNA
Islamabad : Taliban-linked militants in Pakistan’s troubled Waziristan tribal region have killed three kidnapped soldiers from the group of around 300 kidnapped soldiers, local administration said Thursday.
The slaughtered bodies of three of the soldiers were found in Ladha area of South Waziristan early Thursday.
The militants had kidnapped the soldiers on August 30 and had demanded release of their 10 colleagues and withdrawal of troops from the region.
A jirga or council of tribal elders has failed to secure the release of the soldiers after the government refused to accept militants’ demands.
Local authorities said that they found bodies of three soldiers on a road between Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan and Jandola, a major town in the region at 5 a.m. on Thursday.
They said that the soldiers were slaughtered and thrown in a deserted area.
Zulfikar Mehsood, a spokesman for the militant leader Baitullah Mehsood, was quoted by local media as saying they will kill three soldiers daily if their demands were not met.
The government is anxious for the release of their soldiers but when we ask for the release of our people then the government says it will be decided by courts, Zulfikar said.
He condemned military operation against what he called against the innocent citizens in Tank, a city at the edge of South Waziristan.
The US army in Afghanistan this week announced 2,00,000 dollars reward for the arrest of Baitullah Mehsood.
Baitullah Mehsood had signed a peace deal with the government in 2005 but the militants accuse the government of deploying troops in the region in violation of the peace deal.
Militants had freed 32 kidnapped soldiers at the request of members of the tribal jirga last month.
Militants in the neighbouring North Waziristan also scrapped peace deal with the government signed in September last year.
They also charge the government of violating peace deal, the charge denied by the army.