21 Policemen Shot to Death in Head After Kidnapped by Taliban in Pakistan
Twenty-one tribal police officers in Pakistan were found dead on Sunday.
Government officials believe that the same officers found fatally shot were also kidnapped by Taliban forces on Dec. 27 in the dangerous northwest tribal region of the country.
Twenty-three policemen disappeared and two other were killed on Thursday during an attack by militants at two guard posts in Peshawar, according to The Associated Press.
The militants responsible for the devastating attack were armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
The bodies of the 21 policemen were found after midnight in the Jabai area of the region. The militants put the officers in a line and shot them down. One other policeman was discovered seriously wounded. Another officer escaped and informed authorities who found the dead policemen.
The victims were from a paramilitary force recruited from members of ethnic Pashtun tribes in northwestern Pakistan.
Naveed Akbar Khan, one of the top political officials in the region, said that the men were found tied and blindfolded. The policemen were then each shot in the head, making it a miracle that one of the officers was able to survive.
According to The Daily Mail, a spokesperson for the Taliban claimed that the group was responsible for the killing of the police officers.
"We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution," said Ihsanullah Ihsan for the Taliban in Pakistan. "We didn't make any demand for their release because we don't spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting,"
The Pakistani Taliban is one of the biggest combatant groups in the area and is a part of a large insurgency against the government. The tribal area where the attacks happened is also the main sanctuary and hiding place for the Taliban in the country.
