The Taliban videotaped the brutal execution of more than a dozen Pakistani policemen who were captured during last month’s raid in a remote area of northwestern Pakistan.
The graphic video, which shows 16 Pakistani policemen who are lined up and then gunned down by Taliban fighters wielding AK-47s, was taken in early June in the Shaltalu area of the district of Dir in northwestern Pakistan, a Pakistani official and US intelligence officials who track the region told The Long War Journal. The executions were filmed after the policemen were captured during several days of heavy fighting.
The policemen were captured after the Taliban crossed the border from Kunar province in Afghanistan and attacked police outposts and villages in the Shaltalu area on June 1. The raid sparked a pitched battle that lasted for several days. Dozens of Pakistani policemen were taken hostage during the ensuing fighting, according to Pajhwok Afghan News. Pakistani officials claimed that 27 policemen and 45 Taliban fighters were killed during the raid, but Pajhwok put the number of policemen killed at more than 40. Raids by the Taliban on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border have increased this year as the terror groups have expanded their footholds in the region [see LWJ report, Taliban step up cross-border attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan].
The graphic video, which was published on the LiveLeak website, begins by showing the policemen, whose hands are bound behind their backs, in a line along a hillside. A Taliban commander tells the policemen they are responsible for the execution of six Pakistani “children” in the neighboring Pakistani district of Swat. Just prior to executing the Pakistani men, the Taliban leader gives a quick speech.
“These are the enemies of Islam who originated from Pakistan,” says the Taliban commander, who is masked and has not been identified, according to a translation of the statement received by The Long War Journal. He describes the men as “murtards,” or those who have abandoned Islam.
“They are the Pakistani police, soldiers, and their supporters who recently lined up six kids in Swat and shot them execution style,” the commander continues. “These Pakistanis are now our captive and we will avenge the death of the children by doing the same to them.”
The Taliban commander orders the policemen to remain still, then he and his fighters immediately open fire on the bound men. Most of the policemen are killed during the initial volley of Taliban fire. Several of the men are heard moaning as the Taliban stop shooting. The Taliban quickly move in to finish off the survivors at close range. The Taliban then travel up and down the line of bodies, pumping rounds into those still alive.
A Taliban fighter with a video camera tapes the entire execution and its aftermath. Later in the video, his shadow is cast over the dead bodies as he films them.
The video has not been attributed to a specific Taliban faction, however two major Taliban groups operate in the region, one commanded by Qari Zai Rahman, and another by Mullah Fazlullah.
Qari Zai Rahman is the dual-hatted Taliban and al Qaeda leader who operates in Pakistan’s tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand, as well as in Afghanistan’s provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. ISAF and Afghan forces have been hunting Rahman for more than a year.
Mullah Fazlullah commands the Taliban forces in the district of Swat, which borders Dir to the east. Fazlullah’s forces openly ruled Swat and neighboring districts from 2007 until April 2009, when the Pakistani military launched an operation to eject the Taliban. Fazlullah and most of his top leaders evaded the operation, however, and have since sheltered along the Afghan-Pakistani border, particularly in Dir.
The Pakistani Taliban routinely videotape executions of their captives. The most recent high-profile execution was carried out by Hakeemullah Mehsud and his followers. Earlier this year, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan released a videotape of the execution of a former Pakistani military intelligence official known as Colonel Imam. Although Imam, a senior officer in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, was a favorite of the Afghan Taliban for his support of Mullah Omar, the Pakistani Taliban accused him spying against the terror group [see LWJ report, Video: Pakistani Taliban execute Colonel Imam].
78 Comments
where’s the uniforms? policemen? where’s the uniforms?
Did they have them, and now the Taliban has them… to use to commit crimes, so they can accuse more policemen? soldiers too? looks like they’re doing both in Afghan and the Pak.
Do they continue shooting just for fun or because they keep missing the kill shot?
omg, ugly. I don’t think they can kill a lot of people in munite.
Seems very brutal
This is why I salute every time I read a report of a drone strike on these heartless bastards.Thanks Bill for illustratating why it is necessary to hunt down and kill these murderous clowns!
Despicable…..
It astonishes me that there are individuals within the Pakistani armed forces and security services who support these Taliban. Because by any definition, they’re traitors – and in a sane country they would be lined up themselves and dealt with in the very same way.
One can only conclude that your country is quite mad.
Holy s…
Very sad and very disgusting. The Talibs are insane. For some reason I have a feeling the Pakis were falsely accused.
Thanks for showing this clip of reality in Afganistan. Golly the holy warriors can not even kill a bound line up ten yards away on the first rousd. Reminds me of the Nazis. The propaganda blitz at first, the incompetent first shooting, the dwelling on death as the sadist marches back and forth back and forth putting more holes in dead people. One hopes his life ends when he least expects it in a drone attack. It would be nice to think he dies hrapped in the rubble of a collapsed building from dehydcation. Of course as he listens to his comrades die as they try to dig him out. Every anti Afganistan war person should be forced to watch this video.
these taliban have no right to live they are a black stain on the holly religion islam
i wish i could kill these bastards by my self
i appeal US army to allow me to join them so i can kill these taliban
So these are the heroic fighters of Islam…
Perhaps war crimes are always a function of who wins however, regardless of that. The top one hundred Taliban commanders need to be classified as committing crimes against humanity by the Haque. They will never have peace in this world- they will always be pursued for this mass murder of their own.
The Taliban assume the world will forget this and they will return to their dirty, wind blown, brown world of oppression and stupidity after we leave. They are wrong.
Taliban, vai tomar no cu!!!
I saw this story and like most was interested in seeing what it was about. Not for the video but for the story itself. I refuse to watch the video as I feel no need to see people executed. This video and others like it speaks volumes as to the enemy we are fighting and the commitment we must have to erradicating this. It also speaks to the resolve that these savages have to their way of life and the lengths they will go to perpetuate radicalism. The “do it our way or die” methodology is a bitter pill for people of the free world to swallow and if eyes weren’t opened before this then they should be now. The Paki’s need to pick a side and stick with it. The half hearted participation with the WOT will continue to have results like this.
Its one thing to brag about killing afgans in afghanistan who are “apostates” but its another to brag about killing pakistani policemen in pakistan.
The taliban here are behaving like they are the defacto if not dejure government in pakistan.
Is this the proper way for the Taliban to treat their friends in the ISI even before the Taliban have taken power in Afghanistan. Doesn’t this embarrass their friends inside the government?
But perhaps the Taliban is not overplaying their hand. The Pakistanis perhaps celebrate Taliban behavior. Perhaps the ISI think this sort of thing is all good.
But I don’t think so. If the policemen were killers then its unlikely that ISI killers would be spared if the Taliban came into power. If the policemen were not killers, then the Taliban is just making an in your face power play to the ISI. The Taliban is saying Pakistan is as much in play as Afghanistan.
Talibs show they are not humans. And the world attitude must be correspondent. Hunt down and exterminate to the last one, liberate the earth from mad beasts!
What we need now is a modern day Frank Capra to use this video and similar videos to make a new “Why We Fight.”
@ Rick,
Excellent point well made.
Signs of what to come in Kandahar, Kabul, and Herat? The Afghans must see this and prevent the same thing happening in their country. Mind you the Taliban have already hit police stations and beheaded a few policemen. But what we see here will be magnfied a hundred fold if Afghanistan is just left by the wayside.
I ask anyone this: What kind of people mass murder police officers? Answer: Criminals.
At their core these individuals are nothing but small time criminals that have ‘graduated’ to the status of international war criminals.
These are the real ‘occupiers’ of Afghanistan, many of which are most likely not even of Afghan descent.
They should show this to the AFghan Taliban who falsely believe they are serving their own people.
Reminds me a lot of Pol Pot. I don
Poor buggers that is no way to go, best way to get rid of them arm the aftgan people and let them hand out there style of justice to these terriosts (taliban) they no who and where they are. These guys have been fighting forever, the people are just puppets in their war against the world, eye for a eye HELL NO, get u some of those american gunships and blow them to the sky, sorry to these men and their familys
“sports” and others, Please do not be duped by the double games of the ISI, the real rulers of Pakistan. I wish I had time, and space here, to explain.
Disgusting – how can they not be affected by such inhuman behaviour – I am fairly liberal but this representation if ISLAM repells me
They are not human.
Lets Cut that last branch of that tree where they perch to alight.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for Human Rights Watch or any of the other International leftist orgs to decry this atrocity. They’re eagerly awaiting their next opportunity to believe and promote any charge of collateral civilian casualties attributed to American/Coalition forces.
This should not be any sort of surprise to anyone who remembers how the Taliban murdered 40,000 Hazaras in a single incident (when they blew up the
Bamiyan Buddha statues).
Their mothers must be proud that their cowardly sons can shoot tied up Muslim hostages. The victims of this atrocity will have a special place in heaven and the perpetrators will have a special place next to Satan.
In case you ever wondered what they looked like, THOSE are DOGS dressed as men. Cowards. Give me 3 minutes alone and unarmed with one of them. I promise you he will denounce his own brothers in order to spare IT’self. Humans don’t behave like this. Only demons and cowards do these things.
Question. They claim to avenge the death of thier loved ones. So, doen’t that mean that any more killing wouldn’t be nessesary. Thier simple minds and beliefs will never stand up to logic, or the Truth. Never!
Malek Towghi, please do go on…
This is the kind of event that Muslim world leaders need to condemn publicly. The West is always being told that Islam is a religion of peace, but people are not inclined to believe that because it seems like no influential Muslim leaders ever speak out against such barbaric behavior.
#1 does this video not prove War Crimes have been committed? Where’s the UN when needed?
#2 does this not show the Pakistani people what else their country is protecting
#3 I am not a supporter of Pakistan, but this was Genocide
these men arent from Pakistan they are actually afghans , Taliban rarely kill Pakistani people , England reporters wrote pakistan policemen even though these people clearly arent police men at all they are simple villegars . Most of taliban infantry are from pakistan. they woudnt do that to there own people. Pakistan support the talibans and so do england.
Pakistani policemen generally wear uniforms. These unfortunate victims appear to be local tribesmen who, in the absence of Pakistani military support, may have resisted the Taliban and were slaughtered for fighting back. It is clear from the deaths of Col. Imam and Khalid Khawaja that there is a battle within the ISI which has spilled into their creation, the Taliban. The Pakistani establishment journalist Hamid Mir was taped, possibly by one faction within the ISI, encouraging the murder of the ex-ISI operative, Khawaja. This may just be an example of the Mafia wars within the Pakistani military/ISI/Taliban mobster families.
That is not Islam,that is terrorism…May Allah help this brainwashed terrorist to find the right way…insallah
This is nothing compaired to what the VC and NVA did to the South Vietnames villagers all ofer that poor country.
@Dan Short
By now, you should know that humans DO behave like this. “Dogs” and “beasts” (as someone else called them) DO NOT behave like this. Let’s stop attributing insane human behavior to more civilized species like dogs.
This is disgusting. How these men call themselves Muslim is beyond me.. they are so convicted in their warped sense of righteousness, so uneducated and unaware. I watched a video recently about 3 men giving a monkey a gun, and the monkey shot at them. It drew a parallel to the current situation – the United States are represented by the 3 men, who are foolish enough to give a gun to the monkey, and the monkey is of course the Taliban, who shoots at them and then celebrates. The US created these monsters during the soviet afghan war, and have left them on Pakistani/Afghani soil to terrorize the civilians and other liberal human beings. Sad. Who’s to blame in this situation? ALL OF US.
No dog deserves to be referred to in the same breath as this scum.
Most of you here believe that the only solution to stopping/eliminating such violence in this world is to join in and add more violence. You are loosing sight of the fact that the above act was conducted in response to another despicable act of violence. So all you would be doing is contributing to the cycle.
I know I would be wasting my time and yours trying to plead with my fellow humans to stop killing each other.
In my few years of living in this harsh, human infested world, I’ve constantly pondered God’s decision to allow such cruel acts and people amongst us. I doubt my question(s) will be truly answered while I’m alive but in the mean time I’m gonna go play my guitar.
This was the revenge for Pakistani soldiers murdering 6 civilians including children, in the same style as this. All of the 6 young civilians were lined up just like this and fired upon by the pakistani soldiers. Some of them did not die and were crying and moaning, then a pakistani soldier went near and shot them in the head. The video is available on youtube and other sites.
This was a revenge for the following video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkWPBZCfvl8&feature=related
salim,
these men arent from Pakistan they are actually afghans , Taliban rarely kill Pakistani people , England reporters wrote pakistan policemen even though these people clearly arent police men at all they are simple villegars . Most of taliban infantry are from pakistan. they woudnt do that to there own people. Pakistan support the talibans and so do england.
I know that these people – groups aren’t named Taliban, but they do have significant overlap with the sentiments – philosophy of the Taliban and have also planned & acted with the Taliban.
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LeJ leader freed on bail
He has been accused of a variety of crimes, including orchestrating the attack on the cricketers, which left six security officers and a driver dead.
Over the years, the cases against Ishaq have faltered as many witnesses have been too scared to testify.
Qaeda, Taliban, LeJ working in tandem against Pak: Malik
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have joined hands and are using each other’s resources to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters at the airport in the southern port city of Karachi.
The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is mainly involved in creating terror in Karachi, he said.
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Sufi Mohammad charged with murder, treason
Bill- Thanks for the video that shows the rest of the world what cowardly animals the Taliban really are,along with their state sponsors Pakistan as well as Saudi Arabia.
These are the people the ACLU,Amnesty International, UN,and other western lefties defend.
Pakistan being tumbled by these animals is a nightmare, the worst case is Pakistan and the ultra wealthy Saudi’s both overthrown by these type of barbarians.
The west would see an export of terror that makes Iran seem like a church picnic.
Then factor in India, who would be forced to use nuclear weapons against a radical,illogical Islamic state of Pakistan.
Bottom line is this, the Pakistanis along with Saudis are addicted to exporting terrorism.
I have witnessed this first hand in Somalia,the Balkans,then becoming a DAV in 3/2002 in Afghanistan.
Thanks again Bill for your outstanding work!
this is not a holy war, the war should be based on fighting the influences of the US not killing everyone who supports the US, but should rather be an increase in the teaching of Islam… shame that our people have become so misguided….
Once again the show that they are no humans….. it is really upsetting and show that you cannot talk about peace or anything else with. Even wild animals are more civiliazed then they are…. The rest of the world must make clear that this is not tolerated in our world. If not possible by words then it has to be done by any means available and possible….. outrageous!!!!!!
One moment 12 men are breathing, the next moment they are not. My brain and being are too simple to absorb what it has just witnessed.
Ultimately, we are all but brief candles shining in the darkness, soon to be extinguished.
That ultimate, inretractable moment may be dealt by a tsunami, famine, old age or slaughter.
There is no meaning, there is no ultimate judgment, so why not drink deeply from the cup of life, and love one another?
That I understand. When the waves crash to the shore, when the spring comes, when the dog licks my hand. All these things make sense to me…I am a simpleton…devoid of religious dogmas, righteous decrees or political mantras.
Those men are dust…one day, I too shall return to dust. This I understand as well.
Oh well… at least now they can sleep in…
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/3700054/Dont-shoot-Taliban-youll-wake-locals.html
Now that the Pakis have seen what they are in bed with, why don’t they simply pull their forces out of the tribal areas, and call in US airstrikes to obliterate the remaining vermin that commit such atrocities on their people? Indians must seem friendly by comparison to these slime.
This is what stone-age man does with guns. I feel sorry for the trigger-pullers who have been brain-washed. Grats to religion!!!!
Don’t think for a second that these cold blooded killers will not do the same if they were to capture American soldiers.
@Malek Towghi…if this is an ISI game??? Then, these guys are some real sic SOB’s. You don’t have to convince me that the country of Pakistan is moraly bankrupt. I’ve said many times that I STOPPED feeling sorry for the plight of the Pakistan people. They are such dimwits they can’t get out of their own way! They deserve all the bad luck they get. I’m sure more bad things are just around the corner for Pakistan and you can rest assurred that I won’t be donating any money to help anybody either.
People like this make it so hard for me to fight my corner when trying to defuse racial hatred in the U.K because all we see here are stories and videos like this one and then people automatically think this is what all Muslims,Afghans or Pakistanis are like and what can I say to that when they have just seen a video like this???
As for me I am a 27 year old man and unfortunately I watched the full video I can not understand the need of some people to take life however I can understand why I should never watch a video which has a warning like this.
It may interest readers to know that earlier today Saddam Hussein’s two half-brothers, Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan and Watbam Ibrahim al-Hassan, were transferred from U.S. military authorities to Iraqi civilian authorities, presumably for execution. A third war criminal, Sultan Hashim, was also transferred.
All three war criminals have been in custody since 1992.
Question: I wonder how long the kangaroo trials lasted for the 16 Pakistani policemen executed in the video above?
Due process, in part, makes us a civilized people.
I’m not sure why everyone is so disgusted at this in particular, must be because it’s graphic. The Taliban and Al Qaeda do way worse things on a monthly basis than illegally execute thseir PoW.
Seem a group of mad, it is not as per Islamic teachings. May God escape us from such type of mad people.
This is why you NEVER let savages like this take you alive. ie: “The last bullet is for me” ======= TOMBO– the VC/NVA did the same thing that all the others before and since have done (and will do in the future…). Rape, Pillage, Murder, Atrocities, Beheadings, Crucifictions, Babies, Children, Old Folks, and of course the requisite “inter-organizational purges”, ALL of it is “on the table”. I won’t waste all our time listing some, but suffice it to say that THROUGHOUT the history of man, this type of savagery is SOP. The only way to defeat it is to meet their violence with GREATER violence, to do otherwise, and this includes turning a blind eye, is to have your head separated from your body. Until the Pakis and Afghanis MAKE IT THEIR OWN PRIORITY to wipe out the Taliban, this will continue to happen. If they do it is “Allah’s Will”…… All we are doing is providing a costly “delaying action”……..
Sadly, I must admit that I have become desensitized to things like this.
What a sick world this is.
the bottom line is don’t get captured..fight on and take out as many of the bad guys as possible. I spent three years in combat and always had my rank in plain sight…knowing that if I allowed myself to be captured…I would be shot. I would have no problem with killing the people who where doing the killing here..you tend to get that way after spending too long in a crazy world..combat does make you crazy. think not> try it,for a while and see!
The world will see even more brutal scenes once US troops leave Afghanistan….
We must have to eradicate this Taliban crap! But not with our loved ones in our US military, but with Drones! They, i mean the Taliban are not worth dying for!!
Another fake video made by CIA just to destabalize the relation between two islamic countries..but let me assure u one thing no matter how hard these times are for us.Pakistan is going to live…LONG LIVE PAKISTAN
@hani…have you ever heard of baked beans? your full of them.
The U.S., Afghani and Pakistani Gov’ts all want to negotiate with these fascists? Lets use the proper term: Appeasement. It didn’t work before it won’t work now.
If you have ever been there or had to deal with these savages you know this was nothing compared to what they will and can do.
This is who we are are looking to stop right now, these cross border punks.
Bankrupt in every sense of the word except for AK’s and rounds. Soon we will fix that if we can continue to fight.
I didn’t see the video, but from reading what was written to miss at pointblank range gives you an idea as to how well trained some of the Taliban are. I’m sure the story about the “kids” was a lie. Who knows what actually happened? Those “Policemen” could actually be tribesmen who didn’t want the Taliban around…maybe they all looked at them the wrong way….maybe they wouldn’t be extorted by them.
All I can tell you for sure is–the Taliban cannot shoot straight.
And to think the US is doing a deal with the Taliban as it pulls out of Afghanistan. What about all the soldiers who died fighting these animals? A goddmaned waste-that war was a war where nuclear devices ought to have been used.
Strangely enough this video was actually shown on CNN (USA) a day after It was posted here. That’s pretty unusual for a leftist operation like CNN.
This is just a mild preview of what will happen all across Afghanistan when we leave that place. The wierd thing is that most Afghans would actually prefer living under the Taliban than their current government and want all Westerners gone post haste. I think the Afghans are stll 75 to 150 years away from being able to handle anything like a representative democracy. For the time being I believe all they can understand is a tribal rule by shura. We’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and it’s simply not going to work. On some sick level the Afghans and the Taliban deserve each other. I wish them the opposite of luck.
If you get a chance see the new show on Frontline called “Military Capture-Kill Mission”. It’s a good study of our Kill/Capture tactic using special forces and drones. Apparently we’re killin’ and capturin’ more mid-level Talb leaders than ever before but they just keep replacing them with new ones that are actually crazier than the previous one.
The Talibs remind me a lot of the Japs in WWII. We had to drop 2 A-bombs on them before cooler heads finally threw in the towel and even then most of the hard core were ready to fight to the last woman and child. I think we’re going to have to break out the napalm, B-52 carpet bombing and a few tactical nukes before these fellows see the light. But I highly doubt that’s going to happen.
Prediction : Within 5 years we’re going to see an unholy axis of Islamism the likes of which the world has never seen when Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan become total Islamic facist states.
What deluded people. To think they are doing it for GOD.
This what corruption of knowledge and social conditioning does.
One can’t condemn a religion for it’s ignorant interperiters, instead the interperiters who spread false doctrines will be truly condemned.
This is known to all of us.We know what the millitants/insurgents did in Kashmir. They killed un-armed and did a death dance on the dead bodies. They raped women and then took them to the bandsaw for disection. I do not know what religion they belong to!
By the way whose creation these Talibans are ?
@Ashwani Bakshi … very good question! I think CIA didn’t anticipate what their pet will turn into when it created it in 80’s to fight soviets … contrary, VC’s never turned on soviets who supported them in 60-70’s … so, see who’s your friend
“Apparently we’re killin’ and capturin’ more mid-level Talb leaders than ever before but they just keep replacing them with new ones that are actually crazier than the previous one.”
EXACTLY!! I would even venture as to say we are also killing more senior/high-level leaders than ever before, too. But there seems to be an endless supply of these guys.
Why?
The one solution that keeps ringing in my mind is drones. Let them buzz in the sky until you could make a symphony orchestra from their engine noises. If you say any group of Talibs or jihadists, blast them.
Hani: You seriously have issues if you can’t believe the people bombing you would also execute your police.
Then again I suppose you don’t have the time to travel to your northwest to take a poll on the popularity of airstrikes.
Oh wait, it wouldn’t be safe because of the Taliban? What an ironic excuse…
@Hani
People like you with that kind of thinking help enable these monsters.
Grim
To all peace-lovers…i want to draw your attention to a very much important issue, these people are not members of any force in pakistan, its the drama of ISI pakistan who says that they belong to army, these have been killed by Talibans with the help of ISI to show the world that pakistan army is against talibans.its the game of pakistnai army, they support talibans, they kill innocent people like these and than tell the world that they were army personales,it is the game of ISI, we Pashtons request the world at large that kindly take action against this injustice.
janan, what you say seems to make sense and fit the reality.
Unfortunately you were very late in commenting. Even i just happened to read your comment now. I would encourage you to participate in the discussions here. As a peace loving Pashtun you have a valuable contribution to make.
Best of luck!