Anti-Taliban Pakistan leader beheaded: officials
Source: AFP on Google
KHAR, Pakistan — Militants assassinated an anti-Taliban tribal elder and dumped his beheaded body by the roadside in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, officials said Saturday.
Gul Mohammad, 42, an elder of the Salarzai tribe, had been active in raising a village militia to battle Taliban militants in the Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan, an official said.
"The body of Gul Mohammad was found this morning in Mamund village," Faramosh Khan, a local administration official in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, told AFP.
"A note found on the beheaded body said that anyone joining the militia against the Taliban would be killed in the same manner," Khan said.
A local security official confirmed the incident, saying Taliban militants want to scare the local population away from supporting army operations.
Pakistani security forces launched a huge operation against Islamist militants in Bajaur in August. In February, they claimed the area had been cleared but unrest has rumbled on.
Hundreds of extremists are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.
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