KABUL, Feb 17: A private Afghan television channel on Friday aired what it said was exclusive footage of men murdered, some of them beheaded, in Pakistan because they resisted the defunct Taliban and remnants of Al Qaeda.
The images broadcast on the evening news bulletin of private Tolo television station showed decapitated heads of three men being held up in front of a crowd.
They also showed several bodies being dragged behind a pick-up truck.
Tolo TV said the pictures were filmed in South Waziristan tribal region, which bordered southern Afghanistan.
The men were killed because they “allegedly opposed the presence of Al Qaeda and Taliban operators in South Waziristan”, the television station said in a statement.
“The footage, obtained by Tolo TV exclusively, shows half a dozen dead bodies being dragged by a vehicle through the streets of Mandrakhel (in Waziristan) — while a uniformed Pakistani military officer drives past without interfering,” the statement said.
“In other scenes, mutilated bodies and severed heads are placed on display in various positions and locations to dissuade others from opposing Al-Qaeda/Taliban presence in the region.”
“Crowds are heard chanting ‘long live Osama bin Laden’ and ‘long live Mullah Omar’,” it said.
The television station did not say how it obtained the footage of the alleged incident, which it said occurred about a month ago.—AFP
