Pakistan Taliban kill 15 kidnapped tribal police
5 January 2012 Last updated at 08:32 GMT
At least 15 members of a tribal security force have been found shot dead in a volatile area of Pakistan's north-west, officials say.
5 January 2012 Last updated at 08:32 GMT
At least 15 members of a tribal security force have been found shot dead in a volatile area of Pakistan's north-west, officials say.
The men were abducted last month near North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold.
A Taliban spokesman told the BBC the killings were to avenge an army offensive in a neighbouring area.
The killings come amid reports that Taliban factions have agreed to halt attacks on Pakistani forces in order to focus on US-led troops in Afghanistan.
The men's bodies were found in the Spin Tall area of North Waziristan on Thursday morning, local residents told the BBC.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told the BBC that the killing of 12 Taliban fighters during an army operation on 31 December in the Khyber tribal district prompted the militants to kill the men they were holding.
They had been kidnapped in a Taliban raid on a check post in the town of Tank near North Waziristan a week earlier.
The Taliban spokesman added that the government had taken a "very dangerous, un-Islamic and unethical step" by capturing the female family members of the militants killed in the 31 December offensive in Khyber.
"We warned them to release them as soon as possible otherwise consequences will be very harsh but unfortunately they turned a deaf ear to our warning," he wrote in an email to the BBC.
He also warned of further attacks to retaliate against a military operation launched in northern parts of Balochistan province recently.
The violence also comes amid media speculation that there have been peace talks between elements of the Taliban and the Pakistani government.
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