Pakistan official says 17 dead ‘Taleban’ were civilians

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CHAMAN, Pakistan - Seventeen people killed by Afghan forces were Pakistani civilians travelling to a festival and not Taleban rebels as previously claimed, a Pakistani provincial minister said on Thursday.

Thousands of tribesmen watched over by paramilitary soldiers gathered in the Pakistani town of Chaman, which borders Afghanistan, for the funerals of some of those who were shot dead on Tuesday.

“All those who were killed were Pakistanis and not Taleban and they had gone to Afghanistan to celebrate the Afghan new year,” Baluchistan province health minister Hafiz Ahmadullah told AFP.

Ahmadullah said that the Pakistanis were arrested in Kabul and were then brought to the frontier area and killed there in a “fake encounter”.

Residents in the area have also said that the dead were local villagers.