Pakistani soldiers found shot dead, by Taliban, in Orakzai
Pakistani Frontier Constabulary soldiers off-load a coffin of a soldier prior to a funeral ceremony in Peshawar on January 5, 2012. The bodies of 15 members of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) were found on January 5, almost two weeks after they were kidnapped from a northwestern town, officials said. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed responsibility for the killings, telling AFP: ‘We have taken revenge for continued operations of security forces against us.
Pakistani soldiers were found shot dead, after being held hostage since December, the BBC reported.
Taliban militants, who attacked a military base last month, killed the 10 soldiers who were abducted from the Orakzai region on Dec. 24, Bloomberg reported. The bodies were found near the border of Orakzai, according to Naeem Khan, an official in Kohat town, the Associated Press reported.
Last week insurgents from the Pakistani Taliban killed 15 members of a police unit and put out a statement saying it was revenge for an army operation that killed a top commander.
Read more at GlobalPost: Pakistan: Taliban kills 15 police in revenge for army offensive
According to Reuters, the Pakistani military killed up to 10 Taliban fighters and the two groups exchanged the bodies.
"The Taliban killed them (the 10 troops) and had taken away their bodies. We killed some of their people and were in possession of their bodies," a senior military official, requesting anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters. "Now, through negotiation, we have exchanged bodies."
Five of the Taliban bodies were given back last week and the other five were given back on Monday in Orakzai.
"We take responsibility for killing the 10 soldiers whose bodies have been recovered from Orakzai," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told Reuters. "This is an exchange of bodies with them, as they killed 10 of our people and we have responded with killing 10 of their men," he said.
Fighting between the Taliban and military has been going on in Pakistan since 2007, which has led to the deaths of thousands of soldiers, police and Pakistani civilians, the AP reported.
Read more at GlobalPost: AP: Pakistani Taliban has ordered a nationwide cease-fire