Piotr Stanczak, Polish Engineer, Beheaded In Pakistan
WARSAW, Poland — Poland promised Monday to issue international arrest warrants for Taliban militants after the apparent beheading of a Polish engineer in Pakistan, and officials charged that elements within the Pakistani government shared blame for the killing.
Pakistan's top diplomat in Poland firmly rejected the accusation that some members of the Islamabad government are sympathetic to Islamic extremists, saying his country is snarled in a bitter fight with terrorist groups that is killing many of its own.
Without a body, Polish authorities were not able to officially confirm the death of Piotr Stanczak, but they said a seven-minute video purporting to show the 42-year-old's slaying appeared authentic. Copies of the video were delivered to journalists in Pakistan on Sunday.
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski condemned the apparent killing as a "bestial execution" and said the government would issue arrest warrants for the culprits.
"A crime was committed, so there has to be an investigation, a search for the culprits, and if possible putting them before the justice system and an exemplary punishment," he said.
It was not immediately clear what impact the issuing of warrants might have, because Poland does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan. Islamabad has refused to extradite Pakistanis suspected of taking part in the November terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.
Justice Minister Andrzej Czuma said Polish intelligence has identified the kidnappers as members of a Taliban group. He said intelligence "has described the leadership of the group, their relatives, where they are located, their friends in Pakistani government structures."
Czuma alleged that the extremists enjoy the favor of some officials in the Pakistani government. "A lot of people among Pakistan's authorities sympathize with these bandits," he said on the all-news station TVN24.
Malik Farooq, the first secretary and charge d'affaires at Pakistan's embassy in Warsaw, called Czuma's comments surprising and unfair. He said Pakistan is doing everything in its power to combat terrorism.
"Suicide attacks are being carried out against the security forces, and we have lost not only common citizens but our security forces in tribal areas," Farooq said. "Pakistan has been a great victim of terrorism and extremism."
Elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies have long been accused of helping Islamic militants.
Pakistan cultivated Muslim separatists fighting in India's part of disputed Kashmir and it had close links to the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan until the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. Civilian and military leaders all deny any support for militants now, noting insurgents have repeatedly attacked Pakistani government and military targets in recent years.
The killing in Pakistan underscored the challenges facing President Barack Obama, who has made resolving the conflict in Pakistan and Afghanistan a key focus of his foreign policy. Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, arrived in Pakistan late Monday.
Violence in the region has soared since U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late 2001, and many militants sought shelter in the rugged territory just across the Pakistan border.
Security has crumbled in Pakistan amid the government's conflict with Islamic hard-liners allied with the Taliban and al-Qaida. Several foreigners have been attacked in recent months, including an American worker for the U.N. who was abducted in the southwestern city of Quetta in early February.
Stanczak was kidnapped close to the Afghan border Sept. 28 by armed men while he was surveying oil and gas fields for a Krakow-based geophysics company. The gunmen killed three Pakistanis traveling with the engineer.
Few Poles are working in Pakistan at the moment, according to the Foreign Ministry, but about 1,600 Polish soldiers are serving with the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
It was the third hostage drama to grip Poland in recent years as the former communist state has grown into an active NATO member and U.S. ally with military and commercial involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two Poles were kidnapped in Iraq during Poland's five-year military mission there, but both were eventually freed.
Stanczak's slaying, if confirmed, would be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.
A spokesman for Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan told The Associated Press that Stanczak was "slaughtered" because the Pakistani government missed a deadline to release 26 prisoners. The Taliban had also demanded the government withdraw troops from Pakistan's tribal areas.
The video, seen by the AP, shows two hooded men taking a dagger in turn and running it along the victim's neck. They then lay him out on the floor and put his head on his chest. One of them then cleans his blood-soaked hands with the Pole's shirt.
After that, a hooded militant delivers a message saying his group would have let the victim go if the Pakistani government had freed their jailed comrades.
"We did make all contacts with Pakistani government, and even asked them to arrange our contact with the government of Poland," he said. "But Pakistan did not agree and said ... 'you kill this man as we do not need him.'"
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Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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VANESSA GERA and RYAN LUCAS | 02/ 9/09 03:14 PM |