Taliban militants on Tuesday executed a man publicly at gunpoint in a militant stronghold in the Miran Shah town of the tribal North Waziristan Agency.
The ‘Taliban court’ had found the man guilty of killing two brothers, the residents of the area said.
The Taliban brought the man, blindfolded and with his hands tied by rope, into a football ground in Miran Shah, near the Afghan border, before the execution.
The execution highlighted the power the Taliban still wield in the region. The Pakistan Army mounted several offensives in the volatile northwest over the past year, killing hundreds of militants and capturing several of their strongholds, but it has not yet launched a crackdown in North Waziristan.
A Taliban court had earlier convicted the man over the killing the two brothers about two weeks ago. The court asked the family of the slain brothers to take their revenge under Islamic law.
“The heirs fired five gunshots and killed the suspect on the spot,” a resident told Reuters by telephone.
The Taliban later handed over the man’s body to his relatives, an official in Miranshah said.
Pakistan’s northwestern ethnic Pashtun tribal lands along the Afghan border have never been under the full control of any government and have been Islamist militant hubs for decades.
Pakistan’s military says it is overstretched and does not have enough resources to open another front when it has yet to consolidate its successes elsewhere.