"Police said they found four bullet-riddled bodies with notes from militants in their pockets outside Karak." — File Photo

PESHAWAR: Militants shot dead four men for alleged spying and dumped their bodies outside a northwestern Pakistani town on Saturday, police said.

Police said they found four bullet-riddled bodies with notes from militants in their pockets outside Karak, a northwestern town near the lawless North Waziristan tribal district where Taliban militants are active.

“We found bodies of four men, they had been killed by shooting and notes in their pockets said they were spying for Indian and Jewish intelligence agencies,” district police chief Sajid Mohmand told AFP.

“We are trying to ascertain the identities of the dead men,” he said, adding that it was the first such incident in Karak.

The victims were aged between 20 to 40, Mohmand said.

A local intelligence official also confirmed the incident.

Militants frequently kidnap and kill tribesmen in the troubled region, accusing them of spying for the Pakistani government or for US forces in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have been waging a vicious insurgency for nine years.