Negotiators seek release of scores of Pakistani troops (Roundup)

South Asia News

Aug 31, 2007, 14:04 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistani authorities and tribal leaders were Friday trying to secure the release of up to 150 paramilitary troops captured by pro-Taliban insurgents in the border area by Afghanistan, an official said. A 21-member delegation of elders, clerics and local administration representatives travelled to the town of Wana in South Waziristan for talks, a senior security officer said on condition of anonymity. The Frontier Corps unit of around 150 men was travelling between Wana and Shakai in 16 vehicles on Thursday when 'hundreds' of heavily armed militants blocked and surrounded the convoy, he said. The group was being held in mountains in the Ladha area, he added amid confused reports about the exact number of soldiers being held. Unnamed security officials and the militants themselves put the number between 100 and 300 men. A spokesman for a local rebel leader Baitullah Mehsud told the BBC that 300 soldiers were surrounded, disarmed and taken prisoner because the government was not honouring a peace deal. However, the central army command in Islamabad's twin city of Rawalpindi rejected reports of the captures. Contact was lost with the group while it was sheltering in a valley from a storm and the convoy would shortly return to base, a spokesman said. In an indication that a prisoner exchange was to be expected, An elder from the Mehsud tribe told the BBC that security forces detained 50 local residents after the convoy was hijacked. The area has seen a growing number of attacks on security forces since the government troops in July stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad. At least 60 soldiers and 250 militants have been killed in clashes and bomb attacks in recent weeks. Tribal elders facilitated the release by militants on Tuesday of 18 soldiers who were captured earlier this month in the border region, which the United States claims is a refuge for al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. Meanwhile, violence continued Friday throughout Pakistan's north-west border areas. Two soldiers were killed and six were injured in the Swat district in the restive North-West Frontier Province as dozens of pro-Taliban militants attacked a military checkpoint with rockets and mortars, news reports said. One civilian and a policeman died and another policemen was injured in a roadside bomb attack on reinforcements approaching the checkpoint, local police chief Iqbal Khan said. The militants withdrew after an hour of bombardment, leaving the checkpoint ablaze, he said. They later fired on an ambulance that was evacuating casualties but caused no further injury, he added. In a separate incident in the tribal region of North Waziristan, a suicide bomber killed himself and a truck driver whose vehicle was parked near a security forces checkpoint, the Aaj news channel reported. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Your Talkback on this Story

Older Talkback

page: 1

WILL THEY ACHIVE THE RELEASE?Sep 1st, 2007 - 11:03:59

History is quite the opposite..

MUSLIM BLOOD HAS MEANT NOTHING, To CRUSADERS and their agents known as SADDAMIES IN IRAQ, Ladenistic ''MOJAHIDEEN'' and Taliban, it is easy to kill Muslims and get away with.

Muslims made so much fuss over killing Saddam, did any one ever say a word when he invade Iran at the behest of his mentors, USA, UK, And Europe and killed, hunderends of thousands in Iran? NO!

How about when he killed the ''KURD MUSLIMS'' in thousands with poisonous gas, supplied by America and UK? NO! NO!

How about when he gave sanctuary to non Muslims, when he attacked Kuwait, and US was ready to retaliate, did he kill the non Muslims? NO!

US, UK, Australia are the only three ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES countries in the world, how about their coalition to invade Iraq, and killing few hundered thousand more innocent Muslims, did any country who claim to have ''ISLAMIC STATE'' retaliate or even speak out?? NO! NOT AT ALL, ACTUALLY THOSE COUNTRIES RULED BY SELF PROCLAIMED MUSLIMS SUPPORTED THE KILLING OF MUSLIMS WITH THEIR MONEY AND MORAL SUPPORT!!

How about when Taliban killed Muslims in Afghanistan, or in Pakistan?

MUSLIM BLOOD IS SO CHEAP, the crusaders and their agents like Saddam of Iraq, Bin Laden, or Taliban can shed any time as much as they want to, THE ONLY PUNISHMENT IS WITH OUR LORD ALMIGHTY, WE SEEK JUSTICEFROM HIM ALONE.

Report this comment

page: 1

South Asia

Negotiators seek release of scores of Pakistani troops (Roundup)

South Asia News

Your Talkback on this Story

Older Talkback

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in South Asia

News from Other Sites

From Sites We Like

Latest Tech Herald News

Latest Cinema Blend News

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print