Pakistani Taliban militants have executed 21 paramilitary force men who were captured in attacks on their posts late last week, a government official said on Sunday.

The men, who were kidnapped on Friday in attacks on three checkpoints near the city of Peshawar, were tied up, blindfolded and lined up before being shot one-by-one, said Naveed Abbas, a senior administration official in the Khyber region.

One man was badly wounded but survived, Abbas said, adding that the bodies had been found.

The men were from a paramilitary force recruited from members of ethnic Pashtun tribes in northwestern Pakistan. The militias support the government in its efforts against Islamist militants battling the state.

The killing of the men followed two high-profile attacks in Peshawar this month. Suicide bombers attacked Peshawar's airport on December 15 and a bomb killed a senior Pashtun nationalist politician and eight other people at a rally on December 22.

The violence underscores the Taliban's ability to carry out high-profile attacks in major cities even as the amount of territory they control has shrunk over the past three years. – Reuters