Pro-Taliban rebels behead teacher in Pak

Rebels beheaded Maulvi Silahuddin after abducting him over suspicion that he was spying for the US forces in Afghanistan.

Pro-Taliban rebels beheaded a Muslim seminary teacher after abducting him over suspicion that he was spying for the US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, residents and an official said on Friday.

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Maulvi Silahuddin, a teacher at a madrassa or Islamic religious school in the North Waziristan tribal area's Nara Bakakhel village, went missing Thursday, and villagers spotted his body early Friday near a ditch in the area, said a resident, Gul Janan.

"I saw his headless body. He had also been shot in the chest," Janan said.

A letter found nearby read: "Anyone spying for America will face the same fate," a local security official said on condition of anonymity.

Nara Bakakhel lies 75 kilometres south of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, a volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The government in September signed a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants and elders to end violence there.

Although the truce is still holding, local militants still sometimes kill people suspected of spying for the Pakistani or US forces.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, and it has deployed about 80,000 troops in its semiautonomous tribal regions, from where Islamic militants are believed to cross over to Afghanistan to target Western forces.