8 Hostages Executed in Pakistan Siege

Saturday, March 27, 2004
By Amy Waldman

New York Times Writer

A jirga, or tribal council, which had gone to meet militants at an undisclosed location near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Thursday, returned with little to show. Officials said the jirga conveyed to the militants the government's demands that they surrender foreign and local militants and release the remaining hostages. But a tribal elder said the militants wanted the military to pull back from its siege and allow those trapped to leave.

The eight soldiers who were killed were seized in Serwakai.

Image Credit: The New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- NYT
Eight Pakistani soldiers who had been taken hostage by militants in Pakistan's tribal areas have been executed, officials said Friday, in the latest sign that the effort by Pakistan's government to flush foreign militants from the region has gone badly awry.

The operation has proved a demoralizing embarrassment for Pakistan's army, the country's most powerful institution. While several dozen militants have been killed, and nearly 200 taken prisoner, the government does not appear to have captured the high-profile targets that it claimed last week to have surrounded in a mud-walled compound.

At least 30 security workers have been killed in the operation, according to government officials, along with at least a dozen civilians. Twelve paramilitary soldiers and two low-level government officials are still being held hostage separately.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in the tribal areas, and resentment against the army is prompting fears that the violence could spread beyond South Waziristan, the area where the fighting has been concentrated.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is under increasing pressure to resolve the standoff. Islamist parties staged scattered protests in cities throughout the country on Friday but over all were quite muted in their response.

But criticism of the operation has been rising in the news media and, more important, among former military officials — General Musharraf's most important constituency. One of them, a former major general, Anwar Sher, said Friday, "Because of our inefficiency we lost many soldiers."

(More: NYTimes.com / International)

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Dan