Pakistani Taliban militants first abducted, then brutally gunned down 21 security personnel at a cricket ground near Frontier Region Peshawar, officials said on Sunday.
The bullet-riddled bodies of the men, who had been kidnapped from check posts near Peshawar on Friday, were found
shortly after midnight. “They had been tied up, blindfolded and lined up before being shot one-by-one,” said Naveed Akbar, a local official.
Akbar said the troops were killed after negotiations between a local council of tribal elders and Taliban militants broke down.
In a separate incident, a car bomb killed 19 Shiite Muslim pilgrims in southwest Pakistan. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.