Mick Hartley

The BBC blame this on crime syndicates "known to have links with extremist groups" trying to collect ransoms on kidnap victims:

Two Pakistani Sikhs have been beheaded, weeks after being kidnapped in separate incidents in the country's tribal north-west, officials say.

Jaspal Singh was taken while travelling in Khyber district a month ago. His body was found on Sunday.

Mastan Singh was kidnapped in the Orakzai region at about the same time.

The neighbouring regions are home to crime syndicates involved in carjacking and kidnappings, which are known to have links with extremist groups.

Unidentified gunmen demanded ransoms in both cases. A large Sikh community has lived in the area for more than 200 years.

No mention of the Taliban. In the India Times the report is somewhat different, and not just in the numbers killed:

In what threatens to cast a shadow on the upcoming Indo-Pakistan talks scheduled for February 25, three Sikh youths were beheaded by the Taliban in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) region after they allegedly refused to convert to Islam. Their severed heads were dumped at a gurudwara in Peshawar.

The Sikh youths — identified as Jaspal Singh, Sarabjit Singh and Baronat Singh — had gone to realise the money owed to them by some people in the FATA region adjoining Afghanistan, when they were abducted by the Taliban militia. They were allegedly told by the Taliban to embrace Islam or face death. When the Sikh youth refused, their heads were chopped and sent to the Bhai Joga Singh Gurudwara in Peshawar.

A sizeable number of Sikhs lived in the tribal belt, particularly Aurakzai Agency, till the Taliban imposed jiziya or religious tax on them in 2009. Most members of the community, faced with increasing pressure from the Taliban to convert to Islam, have since fled to cities across Pakistan.
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