BANNU / TANK / MIRAMSHAH: Security forces rescued on Tuesday morning 81 students and teachers of the Razmak Cadet College after an exchange of fire with militants in Garyom area of North Waziristan, according to a senior government official. But, 35 students and two teachers are still missing.
There were conflicting reports about the number of students and teaching staff kidnapped by the Taliban in Bakkakhel of the Bannu Frontier Region when they were going home on Monday.
Bannu police put the number at 540, basing their claim on statements by students and teachers who had managed to escape the militants’ dragnet. But a senior official of the tribal administration told Dawn that 300 students and 50 teachers and members of their families had left the college.
‘This confusion was because of the unknown number of family members who were accompanying the faculty members. Our guess is that the total number was 400 plus,’ Additional Chief Secretary of Fata Habibullah Khan said.
He said that in the melee, many cadets and teachers had managed to escape and reach home. ‘It took us the whole day to call homes and try to locate individuals in Peshawar, Bannu and other places. Many of them managed to reach home on their own.’
Mr Habibullah said that 37 people remained unaccounted for and the administration believed they were held somewhere on the border between North and South Waziristan. ‘We think that they have not yet been taken to Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan,’ he added.
The authorities have asked tribal elders in Janikhel, Bakkakhel and North Waziristan to hold talks with the militants and ensure early recovery of the hostages.
Mr Habibullah said the government had also warned of action under the Frontier Crimes Regulation against Janikhel and Bakkakhel tribes if they failed to get the students and teachers freed.
Bannu Commissioner Sardar Abbas told reporters that the recovered students and teachers, including principal Javeed Iqbal, had been brought to Bannu by a helicopter and handed over to their parents and relatives.
(According to AFP, Mr Abbas said that troops intercepted the gunmen before dawn at a military checkpost, about 20km from the college.
‘There was an exchange of fire after which the militants fled. All students and teaching staff members were rescued,’ he said.
But the principal of the college said a handful of students remained unaccounted for. It was unclear whether they were in Taliban hands or had escaped elsewhere in the region.)
A senior security official said that intelligence and intercepts of militants’ phone conversations prompted a high-alert on the road used by the militants to transport the hostages.
According to a student, security forces fired at the militants escorting the abducted persons in Garyom at about 3.30am.
‘The firing continued for some time. One of the shells hit a militant vehicle and we took cover behind a rock. One militant was hit by a bullet and fell. We ran towards the military fort, raised our hands and shouted we are the cadets,’ Ataul Haq, a student of grade-10, told Dawn.
He said the Taliban continued to lurk around the fort and demanded that the cadets be handed over to them, but the army refused. He said the militants had managed to take two vehicles carrying the cadets through the blockade.
A senior paramilitary official said that security forces had blocked the escape routes by attacking the militants from the front and the rear.
However, Brig Zahid Abdullah, who led the rescue operation, told reporters in Bannu that 124 cadets and eight teachers had been rescued in a joint operation by the army and Shawal Rifles in Kakarwam area of Razmak subdivision. No one was injured in the operation. Seven vehicles were seized.
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