Student hostages released in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - January 28, 2008 None of the hostages were hurt. But the standoff underscored the
government's fragile grip on Pakistan's borderlands near
Afghanistan, where crime is rife and security forces are struggling
to contain rising Islamic militancy.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in Pakistan, particularly in the
northwest, and police said the gunmen were criminals seeking profit
rather than militants.
The mounting violence has contributed to the growing
unpopularity of President Pervez Musharraf, who was on his last
stop Monday of a European tour. After talks with British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown, Musharraf insisted his U.S.-backed policies
to fight religious extremism were working.
"I think we are succeeding," he told a news conference.
He also played down the kidnapping.
"It was incidental that those criminals entered the school,"
the president said. "It has been resolved peacefully."
Police said the half-dozen gunmen seized control of the school
near the town of Bannu after a botched attempt to kidnap the
government health chief from a neighboring district.
Police had given chase, sparking a firefight in which one gunman
died and a policeman was wounded. The health official and two
relatives abducted with him were freed.
The gunmen took refuge inside the school and threatened to kill
the children, teachers and themselves if anyone attacked. So tribal
elders started negotiations while armed villagers and security
forces stood guard outside, said former lawmaker Shah Abdul Aziz,
one of the negotiators.
In return for releasing the captives and giving up their
weapons, the gunmen were given safe passage and left for an unknown
destination, he said.
Local police and the government declined to comment on that
report.
There was conflicting information on the number of children and
teachers who had been held hostage. Aziz said there were 315
children, aged between 8 and 11, and 10 teachers. But local police
chief Hamza Mehsud said there had been only 25 children and seven
teachers.
Pakistan's government has struggled to control the tribal
regions along the border with Afghanistan. A series of peace deals
Pakistan struck in 2005 and 2006, under which tribal leaders were
supposed to police the lawless area in return for a withdrawal of
troops, quickly fell apart.
U.S. officials criticized the deals, saying they allowed
al-Qaida to regroup and provided a secure rear base for resurgent
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and his top
deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are also believed to be hiding in the
border zone.
Meanwhile Monday, about 50 miles southwest of Bannu, security
forces clashed with militants in the tribal region of South
Waziristan, where Taliban and al-Qaida fighters find sanctuary.
Violence there has left hundreds dead in this month alone.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said two Frontier Corps
troops were killed and five or six wounded in fighting in the areas
of Makin and Kotkai on Monday.
A local intelligence official, who declined to be named because
he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said 18 bodies of
Taliban fighters lay in the battlefield area. Abbas gave no figure
for militant casualties.
About 800 local residents fled to North Waziristan to escape the
fighting, and others moved to the towns of Tank and Dera Ismail
Khan, said Fazal Subhan, a tribal elder.
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Associated Press writers Bashirullah Khan in Miran Shah and
Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
