Police Officer Is Found Beheaded in Pakistan

NEW YORK TIMES
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The beheaded body of a police constable who was kidnapped last week in the Swat Valley was found Tuesday morning near the town of Mingora, the police said.

A police official in Swat said the killing of the constable, Jehan Zada, amounted to a “continuation of the same process,” implying that the police believe the Taliban were to blame.

Police officers have become prime targets of Taliban assassins in Swat, and the abduction and killing of the constable underscores the continuing pressure on the police there. Mr. Zada was snatched from his house in the Sangota area of the valley, the police said.

His killing also seems to demonstrate the Taliban’s reach and capability in the Swat Valley despite the presence of more than 20,000 Pakistani soldiers who have deployed there to flush out the militants.

Police also have discovered the bodies of a number of civilians beheaded by the Taliban in recent weeks, according to a senior police official in Peshawar who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing departmental policy. He said the civilians were suspected by the Taliban of being informants for the military.

Taliban attacks on the police in Swat have led to more than 800 desertions by officers over the last two years. Police officials have been unable to prevent suicide bombings, beheadings and other insurgency tactics used by Taliban fighters. And lacking specialized counterterrorism training, the police have often been unwilling to participate in anti-Taliban operations.

The killing of the constable came as hundreds of thousands of displaced people were making their way back to the Swat Valley, ordered by the authorities to return to their homes there after months of fighting between insurgents and government forces.

The army continues to battle the Taliban in several insurgent strongholds, particularly in the Matta and Kabal regions of Swat, not far from the main city, Mingora, where many refugees have reclaimed their homes. In a sign that Mingora was still not secure, the Pakistani military declined a request last week by the American envoy Richard Holbrooke to visit the town.

In those still-contested regions, the Taliban have razed houses and killed a civilian working for the police in Matta. And now, with the beheading in Mingora, counterinsurgency experts fear that the returning refugees might have been sent back too soon.