Pakistani Taliban says hanged millitary officer as revenge for executions

Lahore: The Pakistani Taliban has hanged a military intelligence officer in retaliation for recent executions of militants by Pakistan, the militant Islamist group said in videos released yesterday.
Pakistan reinstated the death penalty last December after Taliban gunmen massacred 134 school children. Since then the Taliban have staged several deadly attacks, but the videos of the hanging appear to be the first staged execution of a  military officer since the restoration of the death penalty.

“We were trained to trace the Taliban’s training camps,” said the man identified as Khan. He was dressed in plain brown traditional Pakistani clothes and surrounded by armed men wearing masks and camouflage. One unmasked man in white robes kneels beside him.

In the second video, Khan is shown wrapped in a Pakistani flag, his eyes bound with black cloth and a noose around his neck.

One of the masked men says: “The hanging of Bashir Ahmad is our response to the Pakistani government who are busy hanging our group members. This is just the beginning and all those who are in our custody or those who have any links with the Pakistan government will face the same treatment.”

After the masked man finishes speaking, he pushes Khan off a rock. As Khan dangles from the rope around his neck, other militants shoot at his body and shout: ‘God is great.’