WARSAW, Feb 9: As Poles reeled on Monday in shock after the beheading of an engineer by militants in Pakistan, their government vowed to hunt down his murderers and bring them to justice.

“Now we can no longer save our compatriot, we are going to try to punish his killers,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said after confirming that a videotape of Piotr Stanczak’s execution was authentic.

“A crime was committed, so there must be an investigation, a search for the guilty parties, and if possible, they must be brought before a court and served due punishment.”

Mr Sikorski said the Polish justice ministry was in the process of getting an international arrest issued for Mr Stanczak’s suspected killers.

The Taliban militants released a video on Sunday. Polish broadcasters showed only a still image from the video.

Jacek Cichocki, security adviser to the prime minister, claimed that the kidnappers had originally demanded the release of 60 militants but eventually watered down their demands to just four.

Other Polish officials said the killer of US journalist Daniel Pearl, slain after he was kidnapped in 2002 in Pakistan, was among those whose release had been sought.

Mr Stanczak’s captors also wanted Poland to pull out the 1,600 troops it has deployed in Afghanistan.—AFP