Pakistan's army accused of extra-judicial killings

(April 5, 2010) The Pakistani army is facing fresh accusations of carrying out extra-judicial killings and torture, claims which could threaten U.S. funding for any units singled out for abuse. New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had briefed U.S. State Department and congressional officials about mounting evidence of more than 200 summary executions in Swat Valley in the past eight months of suspected Taliban sympathizers. Pakistan's army denied the group's accusations of abuse in Swat, home to about 1.3 million people and the site of a much-lauded military operation last year to take back the former Taliban stronghold. Pakistani Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Reuters in Islamabad that Swat was open to journalists and to investigative reporting, and that no reports of abuse have appeared in Pakistani newspapers. The Lahore-based Human Rights Commission of Pakistan provided a list of 249 suspected extra-judicial killings from July 30, 2009, to March 22, 2010, saying most of the bodies were found in Swat. It said independent journalists and locals widely believed security forces were behind them. Officials in Washington said they were taking the accusations of abuse seriously. The Obama administration has raised the matter with Islamabad, officials said.