Investigation ordered into taped execution of Pakistanis

Pakistan’s army chief Friday ordered an investigation into a video circulating online showing the brutal firing squad execution of six blindfolded Pakistanis by a group of men dressed in what appear to be Pakistani army uniforms.

Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s call for the probe reverses the army’s initial reaction when the video surfaced last month. At that time, military authorities called the video fake and denied that any Pakistani soldier could be involved in extra-judicial killings.

The five-minute, 39-second video shows the six men, blindfolded with their hands bound behind their backs, being led through a thicket of trees to an open patch near a wall, where they are lined up shoulder-to-shoulder by men in military fatigues and armed with automatic rifles. After one of the uniformed men who appears to be the commander says to the soldiers, “OK,” the soldiers fire a volley of shots into the blindfolded men.

As some of the bound men wail in pain, one of the soldiers walks up, stands over the figures on the ground, and fires several more rounds into their bodies.

A press release issued by the Pakistani army stated that Kayani has formed a “board of inquiry to establish the true identity of uniformed personnel and the veracity of the video footage. The board will be made up of a Pakistani major general and two or three senior officers who have experience investigating similar allegations.

According to the release, Kayani expressed “his determination to take strictest possible disciplinary action against the perpetrators, if identified to be soldiers of the Pakistani army.” Kayani also warned against reaching hasty conclusions about involvement of Pakistani army soldiers,” noting that in the past militants have disguised themselves as soldiers “to malign the Pakistani army” and to carry out terror attacks.