 Pro-Taliban militants publicly beheaded six alleged criminals and flogged lashed three others on Friday, officials and witnesses said.
| But who are we to accuse them of savagery or even barbarism? They haven't even eaten anybody. At least not yet. That we know of, anyway. |
In the primitive lawless Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan, rebels chopped off the heads decapitated six members of a kidnap-for-ransom gang after a blood-soaked feud, local government official Miraj Khan said.
| Are there any feuds in Pakistain that aren't blood-soaked? Is there anyone in the entire country who's capable of confining bad feelings to trading the occasional dirty look? |
The official said the altercation started when militants on Thursday night raided the house of the gangÂ’s chief in connection with the death of one of their colleagues.
| He was just one of the guys until he bumped off one of them... |
The gang leader opened fire, killing four of the militants. However, they went to the matresses and later killed him and his Mom and Dad and brothers and sisters five of his family members, burned his house down and seized another six of his followers. “The militants on Friday publicly lopped off the heads beheaded all six of them while holding funeral prayers for their own colleagues,” Miraj told AFP.
| Gonna have to serve them in the afterlife, are they? That's always a good move, theologically speaking. The Sumerians used to do that, too. The Sumerian crescent moon god was rather appropriately named Sin. We still see his symbolism around here and there, often in Arabia. Other phases of the moon were Nanna the full Moon, and Asim-Babbar, the new moon. Nanna was born to Ninlil when Enlil raped her, which is an old cultural tradition in that part of the world. Ninlil decides the fate of the dead, presumably because she was sullied, however unwillingly. Nin, by the way, is the Sumerian word for "lady." "En" is the word for gent (or "lord"), so Enlil and Ninlil were pretty primal dieties. |
Sharia court punishes: Meanwhile, pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah’s private Sharia court punished three alleged criminals by lashing them in public, eyewitnesses said. “After the government’s indifference, we have set up our own private Islamic court to dispense justice to the people and today is the beginning of the struggle for a cherished goal (enforcement of Sharia),” Sirajuddin, spokesman for Maulana Fazlullah, told Daily Times after the court’s first Islamic punishment was executed in Swat district.
According to the spokesman, the three alleged criminals were caught “red-handed” while trying to kidnap two women from Matta Tehsil last month. Shamroz, Bukhtiar and Muhammad Sher were awarded 25, 20 and 15 lashes each, respectively.
| Kidnapping your lady love is, of course, known as "romance" in them thar parts. |
Maulana Shah Dauran, head of the private Islamic court, read out the crime the three men allegedly committed as well as the punishment they had been awarded, adding that the punishment was “reformatory” and not under the penal code. Eyewitnesses said the three men had neither pleaded guilty nor innocent before they were lashed. Maulana Fazlullah’s armed guards warned the media against photographing or taping the punishment.
District administration concerned: Swat District Coordination Officer Syed Muhammad Javed said the district administration was contacting the cleric to ask him to stop making such punishments. A security official in Peshawar said he had reported to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government in September last year that the cleric could pose a serious threat if he were left unchecked, but “the provincial government simply ignored the warnings”.
| “The district administration no longer exists.” |
 Calling justice: Meanwhile, on Thursday, Maulana Fazlullah’s armed brownturbans masked men held a flag march in Khawazakhela Tehsil to announce to the general public that they could be contacted for redress of their problems, because “the district administration no longer existed”.
“These are the cellular phone numbers to contact for any dispensation of justice,” the masked men were quoted as telling the residents. They also warned CD-shop owners to stop their “un-Islamic” business immediately. |