By NNN-PTI
Islamabad : Militant supporters of a pro- Taliban radical cleric kidnapped and beheaded four security personnel in public hours after troops attacked his seminary in the Swat region of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
“It was gruesome,” recounted a resident of Shakkardarra village who witnessed the execution of the security personnel, all in their mid-20s, by masked militants yesterday.
The militants, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles, brought the four men to the village at around 5 pm, fired a few shots in the air and then beheaded them, the Dawn newspaper reported today.
“Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or help the government. All sons of (US President George) Bush will meet a similar fate,” the eyewitness, who did not want to be named, quoted one of the militants as saying before the executions.
The security personnel, three of them from the Frontier Corps and one a policeman, had their hands tied. They were pushed to the ground on the road linking Matta, a stronghold of Pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, and Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district, and their heads were chopped off, the witness said.
“We watched the gory scene in shock and horror. We felt so helpless. There was fear and gloom in the village,” the witness said.
He said the bodies of the men were still lying on the road at a spot about 16 km from Mingora.
Maulana Naddar, a lieutenant of Fazlullah, said in an FM radio broadcast that the men were executed to avenge the death of three militants killed in a clash with Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships yesterday.