KIDNAPPED PAKISTANI SOLDIERS EXECUTED BY THE TALIBAN IN A RETALIATORY GESTURE

[The bullet-ridden bodies of the soldiers, members of the Frontier Constabulary, were spotted by local tribesmen on Thursday morning after they were dumped in Mir Ali, a subdistrict in the North Waziristan tribal region. The Frontier Constabulary, run by the Pakistani police authorities, has about 70,000 paramilitary soldiers who operate checkpoints in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and provide security at foreign embassies and consulates in major cities across Pakistan.]

By Salman Masood and Ismail Khan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban insurgents executed 15 security soldiers who had been recently kidnapped and dumped their bodies on a hilltop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, in retaliation for the killing of a militant commander by government forces, government and military officials said.

The soldiers were kidnapped Dec. 23 after dozens of Taliban insurgents overran a fort in one of the restive tribal regions straddling the border with Afghanistan. Officials said they had tried but failed to secure the captives’ release.

The executions followed the death of a high-ranking Taliban commander on Sunday and came just days after local news media reported that several factions of the Taliban had vowed not to attack the Pakistani military.

The bullet-ridden bodies of the soldiers, members of the Frontier Constabulary, were spotted by local tribesmen on Thursday morning after they were dumped in Mir Ali, a subdistrict in the North Waziristan tribal region. The Frontier Constabulary, run by the Pakistani police authorities, has about 70,000 paramilitary soldiers who operate checkpoints in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and provide security at foreign embassies and consulates in major cities across Pakistan.

“From the look of it, it seems they had been shot dead early Thursday morning,” said a senior security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We have been trying to get them freed,” the official said, “and we have had contact with their captors. And until last night the indications that we had were very, very positive. God knows what happened afterwards.”

Farther south, armed men in the city of Quetta kidnapped a British doctor who worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday, said Sitara Jabeen, a spokeswoman for the aid group. She said she knew of no motive for the abduction, which took place near his home.

The executions in northwestern Pakistan were claimed by a Taliban spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, who described them as an “act of revenge” for the killing of militants in the Khyber tribal region on Sunday. He said the group would release a video of the killings “soon” and threatened more attacks.

A dozen militants, including Qari Kamran, a local Taliban commander, were killed in the Khyber tribal region on Sunday after security forces attacked a militant hide-out. Mr. Kamran was considered a high-ranking Taliban commander who oversaw terrorist attacks and activities in Khyber and his native Nowshera district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Security officials said they had expected retaliatory attacks because Mr. Kamran’s killing was considered a major success.

Last week, reports emerged that Afghan Taliban and leaders of Al Qaeda had urged Pakistani Taliban militants to put aside their internal differences and focus on attacking the American-led forces inside Afghanistan.

There have also been reports of negotiations on ending violence between Pakistan’s government and some Taliban factions, although military officials deny the existence of such talks.

The executions show that, despite a recent decrease in militant-related violence and suicide attacks, some Taliban militants are unwilling to end their attacks, analysts here said. A report released recently by an Islamabad-based research organization, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, stated that militant-related violence had decreased by 24 percent in the last two years.

“The Taliban are not to be believed because past deals have shown that they end up violating their own peace deals with the government and use them to regroup and regain strength,” said Omar R. Quraishi, an editor of The Express Tribune, a Karachi-based English-language newspaper. He said the executions also highlighted differences among Taliban factions, because some groups seemed to support ending the fighting against Pakistani security forces, while others continued with attacks.

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan.

@ The New York Times

BRITISH AID WORKER SEIZED AT GUNPOINT IN PAKISTAN

[The abduction is the latest in a string of kidnappings in Pakistan, usually by gangs seeking money. "The ICRC has no indication as to the abductors' identities or motives," the Geneva-based organisation said, adding that its humanitarian work in Pakistan would continue.]

By Luke Harding

Gunmen have kidnapped a British doctor working in the lawless south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, in the latest brazen abduction inside the country by an unknown armed faction.

The gunmen seized Khalil Rasjed Dale, a health programme manager with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a few hundred metres from his home. He had been in a clearly marked four-wheel drive vehicle with an ICRC emblem. His kidnappers ambushed him as his vehicle slowed to turn a corner in central Quetta, police said. One man waving a pistol halted his car before bundling him into a Land Cruiser containing seven or eight gunmen. They then sped off.

The ICRC has called for Dale's "rapid and unconditional release". It confirmed he had been living in Quetta for six months, advising local health clinics. His British family had been informed, it added. The Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating the incident.

The abduction is the latest in a string of kidnappings in Pakistan, usually by gangs seeking money. "The ICRC has no indication as to the abductors' identities or motives," the Geneva-based organisation said, adding that its humanitarian work in Pakistan would continue.

Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, a simmering, violence-plagued province next to Afghanistan and Iran. The best-case scenario is that a Baluch insurgent group fighting for greater autonomy has seized the Briton, and might be persuaded via intermediaries to release him. An organisation called the Balochistan Liberation United Front kidnapped an American UN aid worker in 2009.

But there are other, darker, scenarios. It is possible a commercial gang seized Dale, with a view to selling him on to the Pakistan Taliban. The jihadist group, founded in 2007, has been fighting a bloody and relentless war against the Pakistani state, after Islamabad sided with the West a decade ago in the "war on terrorism".

Its motives are ideological – but also financial. The Pakistani Taliban, allied to al-Qaida, is said to be desperately short of cash. Within it are various factions, some more murderous and hardline than others. Islamist militants are believed to be behind the execution of 15 Pakistani security officers – seized last month close to the Afghan border – whose naked, bullet-riddled bodies were discovered in the North Waziristan region on Thursdayyesterday.

Alternatively, the Pakistani Taliban may have seized Dale. Local police said they were trying to find the kidnap vehicle. "We are checking all routes out of the districts but we have not been able to trace it," Nazeer Kurd, a senior city police official, said.

Dale's kidnappers are almost certain to demand a ransom. The gunmen left behind a Pakistani doctor and driver who had been travelling with Dale when they intercepted his vehicle just 200 metres from the ICRC's high-walled residence.

Four health workers, including two doctors, were kidnapped by militants last week from the Pishin area of Baluchistan, near Quetta. They were freed after a shootout between police and their kidnappers.

The Pakistan Taliban are holding several hostages. A Swiss couple, Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were kidnapped last July while travelling in Balochistan's Loralai district, 105 miles east of Quetta.

The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the abduction, saying they had been moved to Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border, a notorious haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida. The pair are still being held. Their kidnappers released a video of them in September, looking gaunt and holding a newspaper.

The ICRC, which has had a permanent presence in Pakistan since 1981, also said it was scaling down its work in the country and closing six of its 10 offices.

The move was triggered by "operational difficulties" and not Thursday'syesterday's kidnapping, officials said. The organisation has about 100 expatriate and 1,000 local staff, dealing with internal conflicts, displaced people and disasters such as the devastating 2010 flood.

"The main reason we are scaling down is because of increasing difficulties in accessing certain areas and populations," said Narej Resich, an ICRC communications delegate in Islamabad. "The main bulk of our health work will continue."

Resich declined to comment on whether the difficulties were related to Pakistani authorities denying aid workers access to areas, or whether it is was due to fears over security of staff.

@ The Guardian