Taliban Video Shows Execution of 16 Pakistanis

The New York Times reports:

Taliban insurgents have released a video showing them killing 16 Pakistani men who were captured in a raid in a restive northwestern province last month, a spokesman for the Pakistani military said on Monday.

The graphic video shows the 16 men, most of whom appear to be Pakistani policemen, standing in a line with their hands tied behind their backs. Four insurgents stand in front, holding assault rifles, with their faces covered by scarves.

One insurgent makes a brief speech in Pashto, the language spoken in the country’s northwest, accusing the men of killing six children in the Swat district.

“These are the enemies of Islam who originated from Pakistan,” he says, according to a translation of the statement posted by The Long War Journal, a Web site that specializes in reports on militancy. The speaker in the video describes the 16 men as “murtards,” or those who have abandoned Islam.

“They are the Pakistani police, soldiers, and their supporters who recently lined up six kids in Swat and shot them execution-style,” the insurgent says. “These Pakistanis are now our captives, and we will avenge the death of the children by doing the same to them.”