Iraqi captors kill 2 Pakistanis

BAGHDAD

* Iraqi driver freed
* Group sends videotape to Al Jazeera

A militant group holding two Pakistani contractors hostage said on Wednesday
it had killed the men, but freed their Iraqi driver, according to the Pan-Arab
television station Al Jazeera.

The group, calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, announced in a video recording
on Monday that it had kidnapped two Pakistanis working for US forces and had
sentenced them to death because their country was discussing sending troops to
Iraq. In the new videotape sent to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, the men said they
had carried out their threat, the station reported. The newsreader said the video
showed the corpses of the two men. The Qatar-based channel said it would not
air the footage "out of respect for viewers’ feelings."

The kidnapped men were identified by Pakistan as engineer Raja Azad, 49, and driver Sajid Naeem, 29, both of whom worked for the Kuwait-based Al Tamimi group in Baghdad. The militants also warned the company to stop doing business in Iraq or they would kill more of its employees.

An official from Al Tamimi had said the group would not encourage the captors but at the same time the lives of its employees were important. He said the firm had commitments in Iraq to honour.

The group said it had released the Iraqi driver, Omar Khaled Selman, after it was clear the Pakistanis had duped him. The militants released a video on Wednesday showing Selman describing his ordeal. "After interrogation, they sentenced us all with the death penalty, and then they postponed mine and carried out the death penalty for the other two Pakistanis because it was clear that they were spies," he said. "After further interrogation with me, they found out that I was only a driver and they released me," he said on the video broadcast on Al Jazeera.

The three men had gone missing on Friday after a convoy of trucks they were travelling in was attacked. Pakistan’s president and prime minister had appealed for the hostages’ release, saying they were poor men just trying to support their families. The men’s families also pleaded for their release in the name of Islam.

In June, Iraqi insurgents kidnapped and threatened to behead another Pakistani, Amjad Hafeez, but he was later freed. agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2004_pg1_1

29.07.2004
Bellaciao Collective