Islamabad, October 27
Militants executed at least 15 people, including six security personnel and dragged their bodies through a market as skirmishes continued after government troops attacked a pro-Taliban cleric's seminary in northwestern Pakistan, officials said today.

Clashes erupted between security forces and militants after paramilitary troops and police backed by helicopter gunships yesterday attacked Maulana Fazlullah's sprawling madrassa at Imamdheri, three kilometres from Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district in North West Frontier Province.

Three rebels and two civilians were killed in the violence. The militants retaliated by killing 15 people and some of the bodies were dragged by through the market in Shakkardarra in Swat valley, home secretary Badshah Gul Wazir of the North West Frontier Province said in Peshawar.

The bodies of three Frontier Corps personnel, three policemen and seven civilians were found in different localities near Matta, a stronghold of Fazlullah.

The militants kidnapped all these people and most of them were later beheaded.

At least four of them were executed in public in Shakkardarra village, 16 km from Mingora.

Notes tied to the bodies described the men as “American agents” and warned that all persons working for the US would meet the same fate.

Thousands of paramilitary troops were deployed in Swat this week to counter the activities of Fazlullah — known as "Mullah Radio" for his sermons broadcast from an illegal radio station — and to restore the writ of the local administration in 59 villages where the cleric's armed followers are running a parallel government. — PTI