PESHAWAR Suspected Taliban militants shot dead two women and dumped their burqa-clad bodies by a roadside in a northwest Pakistan town, officials said Friday.

It was not immediately clear who killed the women in the town of Kohat, but a local security official said Taliban militants were likely responsible.

Police official Riaz Khan said the slain women had a 'bad reputation' and about a year ago were warned by people to abandon their 'immoral ways,' AFP reported.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the women, about 25 and 40 years old, were dumped on a roadside. A burqa is a head-to-toe garment worn by women in deeply conservative Muslim areas.

Nobody claimed responsibility but Taliban militants have been carrying out extra-judicial killings intended to protect honour and the name of Islam in Pakistans northwest.

Residents heard gunshots overnight but the law-and-order situation in Kohat is such that streets are deserted after sunset in the garrison town, which his the main base of the Pakistani army in the northwest.

Kohat borders the restive town of Hangu and semi-autonomous Bajaur tribal district, a flashpoint for sectarian and militant violence.