HANGU, March 16: A boy who accompanied the seven alleged bandits publicly executed by a jirga in the Orakzai Agency has denied their involvement in any crime. Riffatullah, 15, was undergoing treatment in a hospital with a fractured leg.

He told newsmen on Tuesday that he had gone on an errand to the Dogar area of the Orakzai Agency with the seven men when they were captured by Mamozai tribesmen. He said he worked as a watchman in the Saifal Darra Civil Hospital.

He said that after their capture, they were paraded before hundreds of tribesmen who later opened fire and killed seven of them. He said he received a bullet wound in his leg and an elderly man asked the tribesmen to spare his life.

He was handcuffed, tied to the hospital bed and kept under strict guard. The security men on duty asked him not to talk to newsmen. Later, the boy was shifted to some other place.