More doubts over Pakistani deaths

Afghan officials say the Pakistanis were handed over for money

Afghan officials have told the BBC that 16 Pakistanis killed in Afghanistan last week were shot dead on the orders of a local commander.

The Afghan foreign ministry has been maintaining they were Taleban fighters, a charge dismissed by Pakistan.

But unnamed Afghan officials in the capital, Kabul, say the men were abducted there before being taken near to the Pakistan border and killed.

They say the motive was a tribal feud dating back several years.

The deaths of the 16 Pakistanis last week triggered anger in Pakistan and led to the Afghan ambassador to Islamabad being summoned to the Pakistan foreign ministry for an official protest.

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Afghanistan

At the time, Afghan frontier security commander Abdul Razak said the Pakistanis had been killed in a clash near the border town of Spin Boldak.

That account was contradicted at the time by a senior provincial official who said the victims had been killed in cold blood.

'Bound and shot'

Commander Razak is under police detention while an investigation into the incident is carried out.

Officials in the central government have now told the BBC that the 16 Pakistanis were in Kabul when their troubles began, as guests of a man with strong links to the fighters of the Northern Alliance.

They say the man handed the Pakistanis over to Commander Razak in exchange for money and that they were then taken to near Spin Boldak in a number of Land Cruisers.

The officials say the men, who had their hands tied, were all shot dead from distance of roughly one metre.

The officials say Commander Razak wanted the men dead because some had been involved in the killing of his brother some years ago on the other side of the border with Pakistan.