Army 'rescues captured schoolboys' in Pakistan
Troops manning a checkpoint today rescued dozens of students, teachers and staff from a boys' school who had been taken captive by militants in the northwest, the Pakistani military said.
The brazen abduction in North Waziristan yesterday was part of a string of militant actions in Pakistan’s tribal belt, some of which the army says is aimed at distracting it from its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley.
In brief comments this morning, Major General Athar Abbas said 80 people, 71 of them students, were found by forces manning a checkpoint in the Goryam area as their small convoy of vehicles, escorted by militants, were heading toward South Waziristan.
Earlier, officials had said police were negotiating with the Taliban via tribal elders for the captives.
“Everyone is safe and sound,” Maj Gen Abbas said. “An exchange of fire took place, but the miscreants-terrorists fled the scene when they saw the strength of the armed forces.”
A top area government official, Sardar Mohammed Abbas, said all the kidnap victims were now rescued, though he gave the number as being 76. The army spokesman also indicated that the abduction crisis was over.
But details about the case have been murky to start with, and originally as many as 500 people were believed to have been abducted. Overnight, about 200 other students were traced to their homes. Local media reports on the numbers involved have varied wildly as well.
Police official Meer Sardar said the abduction occurred about 20 miles from Razmak Cadet College.
The victims were leaving the school area after they were warned to get out in a phone call from a man they believed to be a political official, Mr Sardar said, citing accounts from a group of 17 who managed to escape.
Local media, however, reported that the group was leaving because their school vacation had started.
