ISLAMABAD, 1 March 2007 — Pakistan yesterday lodged a strong protest with the United States for interfering in the internal affairs of the country.

US Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan C. Crocker was summoned to the Foreign Office yesterday and handed a strong protest note.

Pakistan said it had taken notice of various statements by US leaders accusing Islamabad of not doing enough against Taleban militants in tribal areas.

During the visit of US Vice President Dick Cheney to Pakistan, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam had said: “We will not take any dictation from anyone.”

Meanwhile, NATO and Afghan planes violated Pakistan’s air space yesterday.

In another development, militants beheaded an Afghan they accused of spying for US forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan.

The murdered man, Akhtar Usmani, 30, had spoken out against militancy in a Pakistani region on the Afghan border.

Usmani was found dumped beside a road in the South Waziristan region, a hotbed of insurgency to the west of the town of Tank, on Tuesday evening.

“The body was in a big bag while his head was placed nearby in the open,” said the region’s deputy administrator, Amin Akbar Khan.

A note found with the body accused Usmani of spying for the Americans, said another official who declined to be identified.

Pro-Taleban militants said Usmani was a prayer leader in a mosque in North Waziristan and had criticized militancy.

“He recorded several cassettes in which he criticized us and the Taleban,” a militant said by telephone. He declined to comment when asked who had killed Usmani.

Militants in North and South Waziristan have killed dozens of people they accused of being Pakistani government supporters or US spies.

Many Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants fled to Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal lands from Afghanistan after US-led forces toppled the Taleban in 2001.

Pakistani forces tried to clear out foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies after 2001 and hundreds of people were killed. But the government later signed peace deals aimed at ending the fighting and stopping raids into Afghanistan.

The government of President Pervez Musharraf, a major ally in the US-led war on terrorism, defends the deals and dismisses concern about Talebanization.