The Polish government is pushing Pakistan to retrieve the body of engineer Piotr Stanczak, who was beheaded by the Taliban on February 7.

The Taliban has refused to give back the Pole’s body to Pakistani authorities, demanding payment first. The lack of a body delayed verifying the death of Stanczak – whose execution style death was filmed by the Taliban – for several days.

"I have had a discussion with my Pakistani counterpart,” said Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, Monday, “and underlined how important it is for us that his body be brought back.”

The Taliban had set conditions on the release, alive, of Stanczak – one of the demands being the freeing of Taliban prisoners in Pakistani jails. The deadline for the ultimatums ran out on February 6 after the Pakistani government failed to respond. Stanczak was killed the day after.

Anger grew in Poland, yesterday, at what many see as a lack of will to get the engineer released after it was announced, that the Taliban had released a Chinese telecommunications engineer kidnapped last summer, in a swap for the freeing of 12 Taliban prisoners.

The Taliban have also announced a 10 day ceasefire while negotiations continue with Islamabad to finalise the introduction of Sharia law in the Swat valley, an area out of the control of the Pakistani state. (pg)