ISLAMABAD, July 18: The Inter-Services Public Relations said on Monday that a gruesome Taliban video showing the execution of 17 security personnel was authentic.

“On June 1, some 50 to 60 Taliban insurgents belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban’s Swat faction crossed over from Kunar (Afghanistan) and attacked a joint checkpost of police and levies in Upper Dir and killed 30 personnel. Seventeen out of the 30 killed were brutally executed with their hands tied,” said ISPR spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas after Taliban posted the video on a website.

The policemen and levies had been taken hostage after the raid on the post in Shaltalu.

Gen Abbas said the execution was supervised by important Taliban commanders Hafeezullah alias Kowchwan, Muftahuddin alias Shabbar, Tor Mohammad alias Tor Mullah, all of them belonging to Swat.

Though the site of the execution could not be verified, those familiar with the landscape believe it took place in Dir.

In the video, a commander, whose face was covered, accused security personnel of being enemies of Islam.

“These are the enemies of Allah’s religion and have left Islam. Allah orders to kill such people,” the commander said in Pashto before he and his fighters opened fire on them with their AK-47 rifles.

The victims were shot a number of times from close range after the initial round of firing to ensure that none survived.

Taliban claim that the executions were in revenge for the killing of six children in Swat, but ISPR promptly denied the allegation.

Besides killing the security personnel, the terrorists had set ablaze six schools in the area after the pre-dawn raid.