MIRAMSHAH, Dec 31: Nine bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in a deserted locality in Peer Kali of North Waziristan area on Monday.

Local people said the bodies carried bullet marks and were found along the main Miramshah-Mirali road.

A spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Ihsanullah Ihsan, said the victims were their associates and belonged to the Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan. He described the killing as extra-judicial and said the Taliban would take revenge soon.

AFP adds: “Unidentified people threw away these nine bodies. No one knows who killed them,” a security official based in Miramshah said.

Local people said the bodies had been discovered and a second security official said the identity of the dead was not known.

The TTP spokesman told AFP that all nine were Taliban fighters and accused the government security forces of killing them.