ISLAMABAD — Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying at least 400 students, staff and relatives from a boys’ school Monday, taking possibly hundreds captive in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.
Police were negotiating for the captives’ release following the abductions. The attack was part of a string of militant actions in Pakistan’s tribal belt that the army believes is partly aimed at distracting the military from its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. The militants were said to be armed with rockets, grenades and automatic weapons.
Details were still emerging early today about what exactly happened in North Waziristan. Originally as many as 500 people were believed to have been abducted, but about 200 students were later found to be safe.
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 telephone call from a man they believed to be a political official, Sardar said, citing accounts from a group of 17 who managed to flee the Taliban.
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. The school employee said the vehicle he was riding in happened to be behind a truck on the road and thus it was less visible and able to slip away unnoticed.
by the associated press
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