LANDI KOTAL, Jan 8: A local militant group on Tuesday beheaded a Sikh ‘spy’ and chopped his body before throwing it in Bazaar Zakhakhel area of Khyber Agency.

Mahinder Singh, 40, had been missing since November last year, according to officials in Jamrud. The officials said Tawheedul Islam had claimed the responsibility for the killing by leaving with the body a leaflet saying the man had been killed for spying for its rival militant group, Lashkar-i-Islam.

They said the body packed in a gunnysack was found in a dry stream in Chora area. The killing was confirmed by the slain man’s brother, Paswand Singh.

He said his brother’s killing was a cruel act with the members of a small religious minority.

“We have no enmity with anyone and have lived peacefully in Khyber Agency for more than six decades,” he said.

Mr Paswand said if the government couldn’t provide the members of religious minorities with proper security, then it should arrange for their migration to a safer country.

He said his brother had a herbal medicine shop in Tabbai village of Bazaar Zakhakhel, where he was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on Nov 20 last year.

He denied that his brother was affiliated with any militant group.

Mr Paswand said he had contacted the local political administration along with an application for (slain) ANP leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour for recovery of his missing brother, but to no avail. He said no militant group had contacted him after his brother’s kidnapping.

Mr Paswand said his family had lived in Kalanga Maira of Akkakhel in Bara tehsil for over 40 years before migrating to Peshawar three and a half years ago after Lashkar-i-Islam imposed jiziya, an Islamic tax on minorities, in Bara. He said his brother left behind two wives and eight children with one of his sons disabled by polio.

MILITANT KILLED: A militant linked to Bazaar Zakhakhel-based Tawheedul Islam was killed, while two of his accomplices were injured in a roadside bomb blast here on Tuesday.

Officials said an explosive device planted along a walking track exploded when three activists of the militant group were passing by in Bukkarh area of Bazaar Zakhakhel area.

They said one died on the spot, while two suffered injures.