ISLAMABAD — Troops manning a checkpoint Tuesday 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 on Monday 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 Tuesday morning, Maj. Gen. 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,” 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.
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, 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.
About 30 buses, cars and other vehicles were carrying the students, staff and others when they were stopped along the road by a large group of gunmen in their own vehicles, according to a school employee who was among those who escaped. He said the vehicle he was riding in happened to be behind a truck on the road and thus was less visible and able to slip away unnoticed.
Around midnight, Javed Alam, a school vice principal, said about 200 of the students who had apparently evaded capture were tracked down at their homes. The principal was missing and his cell phone was turned off, Alam said.
Students made up the majority of the group. Cadet colleges in Pakistan are usually run by retired military officers and educate teenagers. They also typically provide room and board.
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