GHALANAI, Oct 12: Masked militants on Friday beheaded six men, two of them brothers, in the presence of hundreds of tribesmen who had assembled for the funeral of five local Taliban killed during a clash with alleged criminals in Pandialai tehsil.

The Taliban had announced on loudspeakers in Dwezai area that they would behead the six criminals captured after a clash on Thursday, to avenge the death of their associates.

Witnesses said the six men and two children captured after the clash were brought to the funeral venue. After the funeral, masked militants beheaded the six men, while the children were taken away.

Local people told Dawn that the militants had attacked a hideout of alleged criminal Yousaf Khan in Dwezai village in Mohmand Agency. The inmates opened fire on the Taliban, killing four of them and injuring six others. One of the injured militants later succumbed to his wounds.

After the clash, Taliban supporters surrounded the house of Yousaf Khan, who had fled with his men and family, and set it on fire.

The Taliban tracked down Yousaf and his men on a mountainous track and shot dead six of them. Thy also took away the six men and two children. Yousaf and his two brothers were among those killed in the clash.

The witnesses said that after capturing Yousaf’s men, among them his two brothers Arif and Daulat, the Taliban warned people against retrieving or burying the bodies of those killed in the clash. The bodies were still lying in the mountains, they added.