'US spy' teacher beheaded
2007-02-28 16:40
Dera Ismail Khan
Islamabad - Suspected Islamic militants captured and beheaded a schoolteacher in Pakistan's Afghan border area for allegedly spying for the United States, said an official on Wednesday.
The man's body was found early on Tuesday in a large sack dumped by a road near Jandola, a town in the South Waziristan tribal district, said the local security official.
He asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of his job.
The area is a stronghold for pro-Taliban militants suspected of harbouring al-Qaeda remnants in remote tribal regions along a porous, poorly-defined section of border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Scores of people have been killed in the border zone in recent years due to suspicions that they collaborated with Pakistani authorities or spied for Washington.
Pakistan's government is a key ally in the US-led international campaign against terrorism.
A note found with the beheaded man's body identified him as "Akhtar Usman, the one who spied for America," said the official.
He said the forehead of the man's severed head was inscribed with the word for "hypocrite" in Urdu, Pakistan's main language.
Usman, in his 30s, was a teacher at an Islamic school in nearby North Waziristan and was known to have spoken out against militants in the area.
- AP