TANK/KOHAT, Feb 8: Taliban militants on Sunday released a videotape showing the beheading of Polish geologist Poitr Stancza and warned other kidnapped foreigners would meet the same fate if their demands were not met.
Before he was killed, the seven-minute video shows the blindfolded geologist making an appeal to the Polish government not send troops to Afghanistan. He asked the Polish government to sever diplomatic relations with Pakistan if it did not try to seek his release.
The video includes a statement by the Taliban, claiming they had other foreign nationals in their custody, including a Chinese, who would be beheaded if the government of Pakistan did not accept their demands.
The Taliban said on Saturday they had killed Stancza because the government had refused to free 60 detained militants.
Earlier, a spokesman for the militants in Darra Adamkhel refused to hand over the body of the slain engineer unless the government accepted their demands.
A Taliban spokesman told Dawn by phone the Taliban would swap the body of the engineer with “our men in government’s custody”.
Stancza was kidnapped in September last year when he was on a visit to his company’s site in Attock.
The spokesman, who identified himself only as Mohammad, said the government had underestimated their strength and offered Rs100 million for unconditional release of Stancza, but accepting money woud be tantamount to betraying ‘our fighters’
The spokesman also claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack on a security checkpost in Mianwali and said: “Our leaders have formally allowed our volunteers to carry out attacks in Punjab, which they have been planning for two years.”
He also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a procession of Shia mourners in Dera Ghazi Khan and warned of more such attacks in Punjab in near future. He warned the government against arming people against Taliban in Mattani area of Peshawar and said that such action would force the militants to go to war.
“We also warn tribesmen and the people living in settled areas of fatal consequences if they cooperate with the government.”
