PAKISTANI TALIBAN PUBLICLY EXECUTE ALLEGED CRIMINAL

Pakistani Taliban militants publicly executed an alleged criminal involved in kidnappings for ransom in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, witnesses said. A masked man blindfolded Noor Hashim, 35, and tied his hands behind his back before shooting him in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle in the Mohmand tribal district, an AFP photographer witnessed. Watched by a crowd of local tribesmen and children, long-haired militants then thrashed the man's body with sticks and dragged it along the ground, he said. Hashim was accused of kidnapping local officials, influential people and children for ransom in the remote village of Rahim Kor, a Taliban militant told the gathering. The execution took place immediately after the funeral prayers for a Taliban follower who was killed in a gun battle with Hashim's criminal gang late on Saturday.