The Pakistani Taliban brutally executed four more so-called American spies in the terrorist-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
The bodies of four Pakistani tribesmen were found dumped along a road in Miramshah, the main town of North Waziristan. The four men were found with notes pinned to their chests identifying them as US spies and warning others they will meet the same fate if they work with American intelligence agencies.
“We killed them because they were spying for America, anyone who acts like this will face the same fate,” the note attributed to the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan read, according to AFP.
The men were brutally killed and their bodies were mutilated, Pakistani intelligence officials told AFP. “The bodies were beyond recognition because militants had repeatedly shot the victims in the face,” the news agency reported.
The Pakistani Taliban routinely carry out such executions in the lawless tribal areas, and occasionally do so in the neighboring settled districts in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. On Feb. 5, the bodies of four tribesmen were found in the district of Karak. The dead men had notes pinned on their bodies that accused them of “spying for Indian and Jewish intelligence agencies.”
Those accused of spying are occasionally made an example of by public display to show Taliban power as well as to serve as a warning to others. The Taliban are also known to put suicide vests on those accused of spying and detonate the vests in front of large crowds.
The Taliban often claim local Pakistanis are providing intelligence to the US and to Pakistan’s intelligence service to aid in the Predator campaign that targets al Qaeda and Taliban networks in the tribal areas. But the Taliban have also used the excuse of “spies” to eliminate their local opposition.
This strategy was perfected by the Taliban in North and South Waziristan. Tribal leaders who oppose the Taliban are brutally liquidated. The Taliban execute the leaders and dump their bodies on the roadside with notes pinned to their chests branding them as “US spies” and traitors. The bodies are often mutilated and beheaded.
The terror campaign has put the Taliban in full control in North Waziristan. In the tribal agency, the Taliban hold sharia courts, adjudicate local disputes, announce punishment, collect taxes, and run their own private jails. At the same time they host al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, the Turkistan Islamic Party, the Afghan Taliban, and a number of other local and international terror groups.
The Pakistani government and military refuse to enforce their writ in North Waziristan despite the Taliban’s actions. The two most powerful Taliban groups, under the leadership of Sirajuddin Haqqani and Hafiz Gul Bahadar, are seen as “good Taliban” by the military and intelligence services as they do not attack the state but support the Afghan Taliban and other terror groups considered friendly to Pakistan.
