MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Villagers discovered the bullet-riddled bodies of two men Tuesday in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border where the government is at loggerheads with pro-Taliban militants, an official said.
The two men, their hands tied behind their backs, were found on a roadside near Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The men had been shot in the head and torso, he said.
Their bodies were taken to the municipal office in Miran Shah where no one immediately claimed them. There were no firm clues to the identity of the men or of their killers, the official said.
North Waziristan lies in the remote Pakistani tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan where Arab, Central Asian and Afghan militants, some suspected of links to al-Qaida, have found refuge with sympathetic tribesmen.
Scores of tribesmen have been killed in the area in recent years in suspected militant attacks after being accused of collaborating with Pakistani authorities or being informers for the United States.
Last week, the beheaded body of another man, dumped near a border village in North Waziristan, was found with a note accusing him of being a U.S. spy.
Pakistan -- a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism -- has deployed thousands of troops to its border areas along Afghanistan to track down militants. The government also has vowed to strengthen moderate tribal chiefs.
However, there has been a surge in militant-linked violence, including several deadly suicide attacks on police and soldiers, since a Jan. 16 military strike on a suspected al-Qaida base in the tribal zone that killed eight people.
