Turbaned men in Pakistan gather around a woman with a black hood over her head, pick up large rocks and repeatedly throw them at her until she lies motionless, stretched along the ground.
Britain's Daily Mail reported that the woman appeared to be pleading for help, but that the crowd around her ignored her cries and continued hurling rocks. Segments of video included in the report show an outer circle of men looking on, their clothing billowing in the wind.
The stoning in the northwest of the country was apparently carried out by Pakistani Taliban militants, incensed because she was seen out with a man. It was shown in a video obtained by a Dubai television station.
The footage is a stark reminder that despite a series of military offensives the Pakistani military said had weakened insurgents, militants still control areas of northwest Pakistan and impose their harsh version of Islam at will.
Al Aan television, which focuses on women's issues in the Arab world, said it obtained the tape from its "sources" and that it took place in Orakzai agency in the northwest.
The Daily Mail reported that a Taliban member who witnessed the killing smuggled the grainy footage, apparently shot by a cell phone, out of the country. That person turned it over to the TV network, the report said.
Al Aan said it had other footage of a man who was executed by shooting, possibly the one the woman was seen with.
It was not possible to verify its authenticity or when it was filmed. The Daily Mail said the killing allegedly took place two months ago.
Orakzai is one of the seven areas that comprise Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Agencies, where militant activity is rampant. Fighter planes bombed Taliban positions in the region on Monday, killing six militants and destroying three hideouts, a government official in the region said.
Militant activity
Last year Pakistanis were outraged after footage widely aired on television showed militants in the northwest Swat Valley publicly flogging a teenage girl accused of having an affair.
The government had virtually ceded control of Swat to militants under a deal to end fighting there and some Pakistanis, disillusioned with a police and judiciary critics say are corrupt and ineffective, initially welcomed the Taliban in the former tourist resort.
That video greatly undermined any public support the Taliban had in Pakistan, and this one, with its stark brutality, could further sour public opinion against the al-Qaida-linked Taliban fighters waging a campaign of suicide bombings which have killed civilians, police, security forces and soldiers.
Militants have also blown up hundreds of girls' schools.
Stonings draw condemnation
Stonings occur elsewhere, too. This month Iranian authorities suspended the planned stoning execution of a woman convicted of adultery — the only crime which carries the death penalty by stoning under Islamic Sharia law — after the case drew weeks of condemnation from around the world.
A stoning in Afghanistan also drew attention to the practice, a slow form of execution.
In August in Afghanistan, a couple was executed for adultery, drawing condemnation from Amnesty International. It was the first known Taliban executions by stoning carried out in Afghanistan since 2001.
Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department added the group reportedly responsible for the Orakzai stoning and two of its leaders to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, a designation which carries financial sanctions with it. The Pakistani Taliban has "a symbiotic relationship" with al-Qaida, spokesman P.J. Crowley said at the time.
The U.S. government said the group has claimed responsibility for numerous acts of terrorism, including a December 2009 suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and a suicide bombing at a U.S. consulate in Pakistan.