Thousands of mourners including Islamic militants carrying assault rifles and bandoliers attended a funeral service today in a Pakistani tribal village for a Taliban fighter allegedly killed in a Nato raid in neighbouring Afghanistan, witnesses said.

About 4,000 people attended the funeral in Eidak, a village in North Waziristan, a local tribesman who attended the service said.

They included hundreds of militants, sporting long hair and beards, who arrived in dozens of pick-up trucks with dark, tinted windows.

Militants had made calls through mosque loudspeakers early in the morning in Eidak and Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, announcing the funeral for Abdul Salam.

They claimed he was killed in Afghanistan a week ago, when Nato said its forces killed scores of insurgents who had crossed from Pakistan.

Salam’s body was among the remains of seven alleged militants who arrived from Afghanistan and were taken to their home villages for burial last night, an intelligence official said.

A cleric leading the funeral prayers in Eidak declared Salam as a “martyr.”

---

• Afghanistan, Taliban, Islam & Muslim world