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 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 a 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, however the station declined to show the footage.
The kidnapped men were identified by Pakistan as engineer Raja Azad, 49, and driver Sajad 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.
The group said it had released the Iraqi driver, Omar Khaled Selman, after it was clear he had been duped by the Pakistanis. The militants released a video Wednesday showing Selman describing his ordeal.
"After interrogation, they charged us all with all the death penalty, and then they postponed mine and carried out the death penalty for the 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. Militants have kidnapped more than 70 foreigners here in recent months in an effort to push countries out of the coalition, deter others from joining and disrupt reconstruction efforts here.
The three men had been 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. The father of Sajid Naeem urged on Wednesday his captors to "feel the pain of a fellow Muslim" and free him. "I appeal to them to release my son, because they are also Muslims and a Muslim can feel the pain of a fellow Muslim," Muhammad Naeem Khan. "I will be thankful if they release Sajid."
They may have their own children and can imagine the state of parents like us whose son’s life is on the line, said Khan, adding: "I hope that my son will be freed by the people holding him hostage. Allah is going to bless us and liberate Sajid." |
