Suspected Taliban militants have shot dead three people in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region after accusing them of being U.S. spies, a local tribal elder said Sunday, Xinhua reported.
The tribal leader quoted an official as confirming that bodies of three persons were thrown along road near Mir Ali, a main town in North Waziristan.
Locals said that the militants kidnapped the slain men some two weeks ago and believed to be killed them late Saturday night.
Officials said that all were locals.
A note was found near the bullet-riddled bodies, saying that they were spying for the United States and warned that all traitors would meet the same fate, an official said.
Locals said that they could not remove the bodies as the authorities had clamped curfew in the region.
Taliban militants frequently kill people on espionage charges and throw their bodies with written announcements that they have been spies and that all those will face the same treatment if found guilty of similar charges.
Militants claim that the U.S. has hired locals and Afghan nationals in the region to pass on information on them and for the drone strikes.
The U.S. has stepped up drone strikes in the North Waziristan region since a suicide bomber struck a CIA Forward Operating Base in Khost Province, Afghanistan last December, killing seven agents.
The bomber was later shown in a recorded video sitting next to then chief of Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsood.