Whose "un-professionalism"?

Commando-in-Chief has blamed the captured soldiers for acting "unprofessionally". Arguably they did, following the footsteps of their C-in-C.

Meanwhile, a brief insight into the sectarian paranoi of de-facto runners of de-facto Islamic Emirate of South Waziristan.

He and Mahmood are convinced that if opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan in a power-sharing deal with President Musharraf, this pro-Americanism will get stronger.

"She is actually a Shia, so what else can we expect," he says.

This anti-Shia resentment is palpable.

In early August, Baitullah Mehsud's militants slaughtered a captured Shia soldier by cutting off his head.

And the way they like to execute the captives:

One militant, Faisal, said "cutting off the head is the best and most humane way to kill".

"When the head is removed from the body the soul is immediately released. Whereas when you hang a person, the soul has to struggle to escape from the mouth.

"If we want to punish someone, we cut his head from the back of the neck, instead of the throat," says Faisal.

"That is very painful and its takes a long time to die."

One of the group, we are told, has decapitated 53 men.