The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 2/10/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Associated Press In this image made from a video handed to an AP reporter in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, Polish hostage Piotr Stanczak sits between two masked men, before apparently being beheaded with a knife. Armed men pulled Stanczak from his car on Sept. 28 after killing three Pakistanis traveling with him near the city of Attock in northwestern Pakistan. Stanczak was surveying oil and gas fields for Geofizyka Krakow, a Polish geophysics institute A spokesman for the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan said Saturday that they killed the Polish captive because the government missed a deadline to release 26 prisoners.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - 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.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools