The
corpses were discovered in North Waziristan alongside the Miran Shah-Data Khel
road that leads to Afghanistan. A note under a rock next to the bodies said “Anyone
who dares spy for the Americans will meet the same fate,” according to two
intelligence officials.
Local
government official Asghar Khan confirmed the report, but refused to give
further details or release the identities or nationalities of the victims.
The
slayings came the day after two suspected US missile attacks killed 16 people
in the region, part of a recent surge in drone strikes in Pakistan along with
stepped-up NATO operations along the frontier. The strikes have been targeting
Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants taking shelter across the porous border in
Pakistan out of reach of US ground forces in Afghanistan.
Akhtar
Nawaz, a local villager, said he did not know who the three slain men were, but
that people in the area were convinced they were killed by Taleban militants in
response to the American attacks.
«This is
because of the high number of drone strikes these days,» he said.
Though
Pakistan has been highly critical of the drone strikes, Saturday's attacks
indicated the U.S. has no intention of sidelining a tactic it considers highly
successful despite increased tensions between Washington and Islamabad.
Pakistan
shut down the Torkham border crossing — the most important NATO supply route
into Afghanistan — on Thursday in apparent protest of a NATO helicopter attack
that killed three Pakistani soldiers on the frontier. It was the third such
incursion into Pakistan in less than a week.
Foreign
Office spokesman Abdul Basit said Sunday that the route had been closed because
of the public reaction in the area to the NATO strikes, and that it would be
reopened once things normalize.
“The
supply has been suspended because of security reasons and it will be resumed as
soon as these reasons are addressed,” he told The Associated Press.
While the
Pakistani leadership has quietly accepted drone strikes over the last three
years and even provides intelligence for some of them, closing the border
crossing was a clear signal it will not compromise on allowing foreign troops
or manned aircraft inside its territory.
