Pakistan: Taliban kill 21 kidnapped Levies personnel

As many as 21 paramilitary soldiers abducted during a militant attack on check-posts on Thursday in FR Peshawar have been killed, Geo News reported. Correspondent says the Levies personnel have been shot dead and their bodies have been dumped in Hasan Khel area of FR Peshawar. He says that political officials and members of local Jirga were sent to the area to retrieve the bodies. All the bodies have been identified and families of the victims have been informed about the killings. The proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have claimed responsibility for the killings of security officials. The shooting of the soldiers came a day after Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud said in a video message the militants were willing to negotiate a ceasefire deal. However, he refused to disarm. AFP adds,Taliban militants have shot dead 21 Pakistani soldiers who were kidnapped three days ago in northwest Pakistan, officials said. The soldiers were abducted from two government paramilitary camps outside Peshawar on Thursday and the bodies were discovered about four kilometres away. "We found 21 bullet riddled bodies of security personnel a short while ago in an uninhabited area," local government official Naveed Akbar told AFP. "One was found alive but wounded and admitted to hospital while another managed to escape unhurt." Gul Shehzad, another government official, said authorities received information just before midnight that some bodies were lying in the wilderness within about four kilometres of the camps. "The hands of soldiers were tied with rope before they were shot," Shehzad told AFP. He said Taliban militants had accepted the responsibility for the kidnappings.