PESHAWAR: Pakistani Taliban militants released a graphic video Sunday showing the beheading of a Polish engineer whom they said was killed because Islamabad refused to free detained insurgents.

The tape, seen by an AFP correspondent here, was released one day after a spokesman for Pakistan's umbrella Taliban group said its men had decapitated Piotr Stanczak, who was seized in district Attock on September 28.

Stanczak, who was working in Pakistan for a Polish energy company, was seized by armed men in the town of Attock, about 70 kilometres northwest of the capital Islamabad. His two drivers and bodyguard were killed.

The video released by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) shows Stanczak sitting cross-legged on a carpet, wearing a khaki shalwar kameez.

The Polish man made a brief statement in English in response to questions posed by his captors, urging his government to withdraw its contingent of about 1,100 troops from Afghanistan, where they are helping fight Taliban insurgents.

In the next scene, Stanczak is sitting in the same position, but blindfolded. A masked man is shown beheading him with a knife, while two men stand guard behind him, holding AK-47s at the hostage's head.

A masked militant is then shown saying Stanczak was killed because Taliban prisoners were not released and warning that other foreign hostages could meet the same fate, without claiming to have specific hostages in captivity.

A black banner seen in the beheading video reads: ‘Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Darra Adam Khel’. Darra Adam Khel is a town near Peshawar, which is on the edge of Pakistan's violence-wracked tribal areas on the Afghan border.

Polish deputy foreign minister Jacek Najder earlier said authorities in Warsaw were still awaiting official confirmation of Stanczak's killing.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk previously said Poland had received ‘informal confirmation’ of the engineer's death, while a spokesman for the Polish embassy in Islamabad said it considered the TTP claim to be ‘99.99 percent true’.

TTP is led by tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused by US and Pakistani officials of masterminding the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

On Saturday, a TTP spokesman told AFP by telephone that Stanczak had been killed because the Pakistani government had failed to meet the group's demands by a Friday midnight deadline.

‘We held a meeting last evening (Friday) to consider it and the majority view... was that there should be no more time given to negotiations,’ said TTP official Suhail Ahmed.

A purported Taliban spokesman named Mohammad later told AFP that the beheading was carried out early Saturday in South Waziristan, a tribal agency on the Afghan border.

‘We had given a deadline to the government for Friday midnight which they failed to honour and we beheaded the Polish man,’ the spokesman said.

Security officials said the negotiations broke down because the Taliban demanded the release of a Pakistani al Qaeda militant known for his expertise in making explosive-packed ‘suicide jackets’.

The Taliban originally demanded the release of 30 militants in Pakistani custody and then reduced it to a list of six, a security official involved in the negotiations told AFP.

The Taliban said both Islamabad and Warsaw offered it a large amount of money in return for Polish man's release but it refused to accept that without the release of the prisoners.

It had also called for the end of suspected US drone attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda targets in the tribal areas.

Taliban refuse to hand over body, claim attacks

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Darra Adamkhel have refused to hand over the dead body of Polish geologist killed by them to the government, Dawn learnt Sunday.

The spokesman of TTD, Muhammad called this correspondent on Sunday afternoon and said that they would swap the dead body of Stanczak with the Taliban men who were in government custody.

‘We will not hand over the dead body if the government does not accept our demands. Our demands are the same that is, the release of our 60 men and end to military operation in the tribal areas’.

He regretted that the government had under-estimated them and had offered Rs100 million (US$ 1.25 million) for the unconditional release of Peter, saying acceptance of the money would have been tantamount to betrayal of their captured companions.

The spokesman also claimed the responsibility for the attack on a check post in Mianwali and said, ‘Our leaders have now formally issued permissions to the volunteers to start operations in Punjab which they have been planning for the last two years.’

He also claimed the responsibility for the suicide attack on the Shia mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan and warned of more such attacks in Punjab in the near future.

He also warned the government not to arm people against them in Mattani area of Peshawar. He elaborated that by arming the people the government was inviting us for a war.’

‘We also advise the tribesmen and the people in the settled not to cooperate with the government otherwise the consequences will be fatal and beyond their imagination.’