- Letter left with bodies threatens three executions a day
- Tribal senator says Baitullah killed troops to avenge 'Mehsuds' humiliation'
Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud on Thursday executed three soldiers from a group of more than 250 taken hostage last month in South Waziristan and vowed to carry out more executions if the government continued the “Mehsud tribes’ humiliation”, officials and a tribal senator said. “Two types of persons can do such a thing – a terrorist or a coward,” military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said in reaction to the soldiers’ execution.
Security sources in Tank city told Daily Times that the bodies of the three soldiers were found on Thursday morning on the Wana-Jandola road in Jandola near the border with South Waziristan. “They (the soldiers) were shot in the chest from close range,” the sources told Daily Times, asking not to be named. Unofficial reports said that a letter left with the soldiers’ bodies said: “We will gift three bodies everyday.”
Around 300 soldiers including eight army officers went missing near Ladah on September 30, and Baitullah Mehsud claimed that he had taken them hostage.
Mehsuds’ humiliation: Tribal Senator Saleh Shah said that Baitullah Mehsud carried out the executions to express his anger at the government’s “inhumane treatment of the Mehsud people during interrogation”. Senator Shah said he wasn’t sure about the safety of the other abducted soldiers. “God knows what the future holds for them,” he added.
Gen Arshad said he had heard that the people of South Waziristan do not harm unarmed people, but such actions had proved otherwise. Asked how the government would react to the executions, the military spokesman said: “We will see what we need to do.” He refused to disclose if any operation was being planned for the soldiers’ recovery. He said the army exercised restraint so that the jirga could make efforts for the soldiers’ release, but the militants had disrespected the jirga by executing the three soldiers.
Rockets fired at checkpost: Militants fired several rockets at a checkpoint in Speen Wam, wounding three soldiers, officials said, AP reported.