Taliban militants on Wednesday released a video showing severed heads of 17 soldiers who they claimed to have killed in a cross-border attack on a check post in Pakistan. The beheading, claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, took place on Sunday when Taliban militants from Afghanistan infiltrated into the north-western district of Upper Dir.
A senior security official in Peshawar on Wednesday confirmed to AFP that a total of 17 soldiers were targeted by the attackers who came from the eastern Afghan province of Kunar. "Six troops were killed on the first day, then another seven were slaughtered the next day," the official said. "Four were missing and now they have also been beheaded," he said.
Intelligence officials blamed the attack on loyalists of cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who fled to Afghanistan after losing control of Swat to the army. The video prepared by the Taliban's media wing shows 17 severed heads of soldiers placed on a white sheet while masked men stand behind clutching assault rifles captured from the soldiers. Local security officials confirmed that all the victims were Pakistani soldiers. "God has given us a great victory, we have killed them all. Four of the heads you can see are from Frontier Corps (paramilitary force), the rest are from the army," an unseen commentator said in the video.
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