Video shows masked gunmen hang Taliban men

JALALABAD (Pajhwok):  The authorities in eastern Nuristan province on Saturday made public a video showing Pakistani masked gunmen are executing three Taliban men.

Officials said the masked gunmen have been in Nuristan searching for Taliban militants who failed to disrupt the April 5 presidential and provincial council elections in Afghanistan.

The video clip released by the governor’s house in Nuristan shows a few masked gunmen hang Taliban men in a mountainous area.

The gunmen did not speak and instead use gestures and mercilessly hang three Taliban men.

Nuristan governor Hafiz Abdul Qayyum told Pajhwok a large number of masked gunmen had entered Kamdesh district from Pakistan and they had so far executed 11 Taliban commanders.

He said the masked men had emerged after the April 5 elections in areas where a fragile government’s writ prevailed. “So far these masked men have been executing those fighting against the government.”

The governor said in central parts of Kamdesh, where a strong government’s writ prevailed, such masked gunmen had no presence there.

A senior security official told Pajhwok Afghan News that the masked gunmen belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkari Taiba. They were dozens in number, he said.

A former provincial council member Amanullah Inayatur Rehman said the masked gunmen had so far killed 15 people, all anti-government fighters.

He said the masked gunmen had arrived from Pakistan and had the support of a strong militant organisation.

A senior official in Kabul told reporters that the masked gunmen were Pakistani soldiers, who entered Afghanistan for a rehearsal of brutal acts to be applied during their activities in Kashmir, a long disputed region between Pakistan and India.

In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the presence of masked gunmen in Nuristan as a false propaganda of the Afghan government.

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