Islamabad, April 18 (PTI): A man and a woman, who were accused of committing adultery, were gunned down by the Taliban in northwest Pakistan a few days ago.

The chilling video footage of the execution was sent to the Dawn newspaper yesterday. It shows a Taliban firing squad killing the man and woman, both apparently in their forties, after accusing them of adultery.

They were shot dead in the presence of their relatives. The newspaper quoted its sources as saying that the incident took place in Hangu district of North West Frontier Province. The execution comes just two weeks after a video of a teenage girl being flogged by militants in the Swat Valley sent shockwaves across Pakistan.

In the new video, the woman is heard appealing to the Taliban militants for mercy. “Have mercy on me, please have mercy. The charges against me are false and no man has ever touched me,” she is heard saying.

The militants first pumped several bullets into the woman’s chest and then fired a burst from their assault rifles at her and the man. Seeing that the woman was still alive after being shot, some militants are heard shouting: “She is alive, kill her.”

Pakistani leaders and rights activists had condemned the public flogging of teenager Chand Bibi in the Swat Valley. Her ordeal was filmed in a two-minute mobile phone video.

It showed the burqa-clad 17-year-old girl being held face down on the ground by three men while a fourth whipped her repeatedly. A large crowd of men watched the flogging, which reportedly occurred in the Matta area of Swat a few weeks ago.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ordered an inquiry into the matter and Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took suo moto notice of the issue and sought regular reports from the government on the probe.

However, interior secretary Kamal Shah told a news conference at Saidu Sharief in Swat yesterday that an investigation team had concluded that the earlier video was fake.

The team, headed by a senior police official, had submitted a report on its probe that will be handed over to the apex court, he said. The team said no incident of flogging had occurred, Shah said.