By DPA
Islamabad : Islamic militants Monday took dozens of school children hostage in the North West Frontier Province for several hours during a failed attempt to kidnap a government official, and released them after being given safe passage.
“Two local religious leaders held negotiations with the insurgents and on their request we called back all security troops who were surrounding the building,” said Dar Ali Khattak, the police chief in Bannu District.
The militants left the building and freed all the school children and teachers after they were given safe passage to the nearby tribal area, he added,
Six to seven criminals kidnapped a district health officer in Karak area of Bannu district, some 200 km from North West Frontier capital Peshawar, together with two vehicles, but security forces exchanged fire with the kidnappers and freed him.
One attacker was killed in the exchange, which also left three security personnel wounded. All the children remained safe.
Later, the militants stormed a primary school in the nearby village of Domail and took hostage around 270 students and teachers.
Initially, they threatened to blow up the school building with the hostages if they were not given the safe passage, but with the assistance of local religious leaders the administration managed to secure the release of the children.
President Pervez Musharraf, in London, confirmed the release. “These children have been released and it has been confirmed just now,” he said during a joint press briefing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
“They were extremists who were being chased and took refuge in the school. But they really did not go for taking children hostage.”
“It was accidental that they entered the school to hide themselves but in the process they took the students hostage. But finally the issue has been resolved peacefully and the children are free,” Musharraf said.
Describing the incident as a desperate act of the militants, he promised to go hard against them in the future. Brown said he hoped that such an incident “would not happen again”.
The hostage drama is the first of its nature in the ongoing conflict between Islamic extremists and the Musharraf’s government.
Dozens of parents waited anxiously for the safe freedom of their children for hours outside the school.
Pro-Taliban militants from the neighbouring restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan routinely launch raids in the Bannu district on security officials and state installations.