MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, June 8, (Agencies): A man was publicly executed before a crowd of hundreds in Pakistan’s lawless northwest tribal belt Tuesday after a Taleban court found him guilty of double murder, witnesses and officials said.
The execution underscored the strong Taleban influence in North Waziristan, a district bordering Afghanistan and thick with al-Qaeda-linked networks, where Pakistani commanders feel under US pressure to launch an offensive.
Several hundred people gathered to watch the execution of Waheed Khan, 25, near the main market in Miranshah, an AFP reporter said.
The role of executioner fell on a cousin of two brothers he was found guilty of killing in Miranshah.
“Waheed Khan was picked up three weeks ago by Taleban and investigated and found guilty of cold-blooded murder by a Taleban court. The accused gave no reason for killing the two men,” a militant who asked not to be named told AFP.
“We asked the relatives of the deceased men to forgive, but they refused and under Islamic law it was decided that the convict be shot by them,” he added.
Witnesses said the executioner was given a Kalashnikov rifle with six bullets in it, which he fired at a handcuffed and blindfolded Khan who was forced to sit on the ground.
Local administration and intelligence officials confirmed the execution but refused to comment.
Washington considers the Afghan-Pakistani border areas a global headquarters of al-Qaeda, where success in rooting out Islamist militants is vital if the US military is to reverse a nearly nine-year Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Although Pakistan has waged multiple offensives against homegrown Taleban in the tribal belt, troops have so far refrained from launching an all-out assault in North Waziristan.
The chief suspect in a New York bomb plot last month, Faisal Shahzad, allegedly told interrogators that he went to Waziristan for bomb training.
The Taleban brought the man, blindfolded and with his hands tied by rope, into a football ground in Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan region near the Afghan border.
The execution highlighted the power the Taleban still wield in the region.
The Pakistan army mounted several offensives in the volatile northwest over the past year, killing hundreds of militants and capturing several of their strongholds, but it has not yet launched a crackdown in North Waziristan.
A Taleban court had earlier convicted the man over the killing the two brothers about two weeks ago. The court asked the family of the slain brothers to take their revenge under Islamic law.
“The heirs fired five gunshots and killed the suspect on the spot,” a resident told Reuters by telephone.
The Taleban later handed over the man’s body to his relatives, an official in Miranshah said.
Pakistan’s northwestern ethnic Pashtun tribal lands along the Afghan border have never been under the full control of any government and have been Islamist militant hubs for decades.
Pakistan’s military says it is overstretched and does not have enough resources to open another front when it has yet to consolidate its successes elsewhere.