Boy-Taliban

Pakistan seems to be ever more conflicted. This story of such criminal use of a child to execute someone -- apparently with no appropriate trial -- offends all notions of virtue. What is worth noting, however, is the reaction of the major news outlets in Pakistan: they are all shocked. The sense of offense and outrage expressed in the Pakistan media represents the true moral sentiment of the Pakistani people generally. It is safe to say that the ordinary Pakistani people -- whatever their opinions about the West or George Bush or Israel or any of the hot button issues invoked by extremists -- have no respect for those criminals who do heinous things in the name of a religious faith. Whatever the faith, none would countenance this use of a child. I suspect that many Pakistanis feel trapped and ashamed of the extreme militants now operating, apparently with impunity, in the Tribal Areas. Musharraf objects to those who blame Pakistan for cross-border incursions by suicide bombers and yet seems unable [unwilling?] to address the criminal behavior of militants who are being sheltered by some of the Pushtun tribes along the Afghanistan border.
RLC

Shock in Pakistan at militant video of boy beheading 'US spy'
Asia World News

"Media in Pakistan on Sunday condemned a video in circulation that appears to show Taliban fighters urging on a boy of around 12 as he beheads a Pakistani militant accused of being a US spy."
"Shot at an undisclosed location, the footage dubbed with jihadi songs and tributes to Taliban leaders shows the last minutes of a man identified as a Taliban traitor."
"The video shows the man being blindfolded with a scarf and making a confession. The boy then denounces him as a spy and cuts off his head with a hunting knife to shouts of "Allahu Akbar" - God is great."

Pakistan: 'Child executioner beheads militant'
Irish Examiner

"A grisly video circulating in Pakistan allegedly shows a child beheading Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official killed in a December air strike in Afghanistan."
"A continuous two and a half-minute shot ... shows the victim lying on his side on a patch of rubble-strewn ground. A man holds Nabi by his beard while the boy ... performs the beheading."
" 'This is outright barbarism,' Iqbal Haider, secretary-general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said after seeing the video."
" 'Whosoever has committed this, whether they are Taliban or anybody else or any Afghan or al-Qaida or anybody, they are enemy number one of the Muslims.' "
"The video accuses Nabi of responsibility for a US air strike that killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who was regarded as one of the top three associates of Omar, the Taliban supreme leader. He was hit while travelling by car in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on December 19."