KHAR, Aug 31: The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan released on Friday a video footage of heads of some of over a dozen soldiers who it said had been kidnapped a few days ago from Batwar border area of Bajaur.

Officials of the local administration and security forces had confirmed that 15 soldiers had been missing after clashes in the area a few days ago. A number of soldiers and militants had been killed in the clashes.

“Some security personnel have been missing for a couple of days and an investigation has been started,” an administration official told Dawn.

The official said it was not yet clear how many personnel were missing.

A spokesman for the TTP told reporters by phone from an undisclosed location that all 15 soldiers had been kidnapped a few days ago from the Batwar border area of Salarzai and they were executed by Taliban.

He said all members of the Shura of Taliban commanders had approved the killing of the soldiers.

Two days ago, TTP’s Malakand division spokesman Sirajudin and central spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan had claimed to have kidnapped 15 soldiers from the Batwar area.

Security forces claimed to have taken control of several strongholds of Taliban in Batwar, Bagandil and other areas.

Agencies add: TTP spokesman Sirajuddin sent AFP a video showing a militant commander posing with 12 heads arranged on the ground and said they were of soldiers they had killed.

“Many of them were killed by bullets, 12 of them as you see have been beheaded, you see 12 heads here, and more heads are on the way.”

The commander, his face unmasked and wearing traditional tribal dress, is accompanied in the footage by about a dozen armed men, one of them wielding a large axe.

The video showed belongings from the dead soldiers laid out on a sheet, including Pakistani identity cards, camouflage pattern helmets, Pakistani currency, mobile phones and bank cards.

The clashes in Bajaur began during an army operation launched against Taliban militants who had crossed over from Kunar province in Afghanistan last Friday and occupied the village of Batwar in Bajaur.

Military sources have so far not said if the video was of Pakistani troops.