Fri Sep 7, 8:16 AM ET



PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Suspected Islamic militants beheaded two women accused of prostitution in northwestern Pakistan, police said Friday, in the latest case of Taliban-style justice in the region.The bodies of the women in their 40s were dumped on the outskirts of the conservative town of Bannu, near the Afghan border, a day after they were abducted by gunmen, district police officer Dar Ali Khattak.

Pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and its lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan are waging a violent campaign for the introduction of strict Sharia law.

A note left with the corpses accused the women of being involved in prostitution with the support of local officials, and warned others like them that they would be punished in the same way, Khattak told AFP.

Investigations were underway but it appeared that local militants who have been blamed for a string of attacks on pro-government tribal elders and alleged spies for US forces in Afghanistan were responsible, he said.

"It is the first ever murder case where women were beheaded by suspected militants," Khattak added.

The bodies of the women, who were identified only as Maino and Malaki, have been handed over to their relatives, he added.

In March pro-Taliban extremists stoned and then shot dead two men and a woman for alleged adultery in front of a crowd of hundreds of people in the remote Khyber tribal area.

Two lovers were tied to trees and stoned to death by angry relatives in central Punjab province in January in a so-called "honour killing" because of their allegedly immoral activities.

Militants in parts of northwest Pakistan have also torched video shops and televisions and banned barbers from shaving beards, saying the practice is un-Islamic.