Terrorists kidnap and execute 21 police officers in Pakistan

Members of the notorious radical Islamist group, the Taliban, allegedly abducted and then executed 21 police officers whose bodies were found in the northwest region of Pakistanon Sunday morning, an Israeli police and counterterrorism source told the Law Enforcement Examiner.

A Pakistani rescue team discovered the bullet-ridden bodies after midnight on Sunday in the Peshawar region after being notified by a police officer who escaped his captors. The rescuers found another captured officer alive but seriously wounded, according to the Israeli source who once served as a U.S. law enforcement officer.

The 23 police officer went missing Thursday evening when a band of terrorists armed with automatic weapons and RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) attacked two police outposts in Peshawar. The assailants immediately killed two police officers and kidnapped 23 others, the source said.

The terrorists lined the policemen up late Saturday night and systematically gunned them down, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the incident.

While no organizations claimed responsibility for the attack, police believe the perpetrators are part of the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for the past few years.

The Peshawar tribal area is considered the main hideout for the Taliban in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, an IED exploded onboard a passenger bus at a station in Karachi. At least six Pakistanis were killed and more than 50 others were wounded, some of whom were declared "in critical condition," said the Israeli source.

Karachi is suspected of being a main hub of members of the Taliban who had retreated from the Pakistani army and rocket attacks by U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the group is closely linked with the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as with al-Qaeda.