PAKISTAN. TRIBESMAN EXECUTED BY PRO-TALIBAN MILITANTS

September 18, 2006: pro-Taliban militants executed a tribesman in a restive Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan after convicting him of double murder, officials and witnesses said.
Sangeen Khan was arrested, tried and executed in Laddha village, South Waziristan tribal district, residents and an intelligence official said.
Khan, who was shot dead, was charged with killing a rival and the latter's spouse after torching a house last year, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Murders and other disputes in the area are settled by councils of tribal elders called "jirga."
But pro-Taliban militants have imposed a strict Islamic code in pockets of the lawless tribal district, where the military is hunting Al-Qaeda-linked militants. The government this month signed a peace deal with tribal elders in neighbouring North Waziristan, under which Al-Qaeda fighters would be expelled and pro-Taliban militants would not run a "parallel administration."
Officials have said that the government is mulling a similar peace accord in South Waziristan aimed at ending years of violence in which hundreds of people have been killed.
Pakistan, a key US ally, has deployed some 80,000 troops along the border with Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants and Al-Qaeda fugitives. (Sources: Haveeru Daily, 19/09/2006)