MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, 6 March 2007 — Suspected militants in a Pakistani tribal area shot dead two tribesmen accused of spying for US forces operating in neighboring Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.
The body of 30-year-old Qayyum Shahmiri was found early yesterday south of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district, a security official said.
This trend of killing US informers or pro-establishment individuals is on the increase in Pakistan’s administered semi-autonomous tribal agencies
Following the arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, tension has further gripped the tribal agencies.
Shahmiri had been shot in the head and chest and a note found near his body said that he was an “American spy,” the official said.
“He was shot in the forehead and they left his body there in the open,” said a government official in the region. A note pinned to his body said “US spies will have a similar fate,” the official said.
Security officials said another body was recovered later from a drain in Manzar Khel town, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Miranshah.
The bullet-riddled body of 40-year-old local tribesman Reham Din was found with a note claiming that he was working as an “America spy,” they said. Pro-Taleban militants last week decapitated an Afghan cleric accused of spying for US forces and making recordings of anti-Taleban speeches in neighboring South Waziristan.
The militants also cut off the hands and feet of a suspected spy in North Waziristan last month. On Feb. 6 the bullet-riddled bodies of two more suspected spies were found in the same area, while another was killed around Feb. 1.
Many Taleban militants and foreign Al-Qaeda members fled into Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions after US-led forces ousted the Taleban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
— With input from agencies
