Militants free 40 kidnapped passengers

[fawwaxs]

PARACHINAR: After talks with tribal elders, militants freed on Sunday 40 of at least 60 people they had kidnapped on Saturday.

Another 10 hostages managed to escape from the captors.

Militants, dressed as policemen, kidnapped passengers, women and children among them, from buses and coaches after attacking a convoy escorted by security forces near Chappari checkpoint in the Kurram agency.

The convoy from Peshawar was stopped by insurgents at a place between Chappari checkpoint and Toot Kass village on the main Thall-Parachinar Road.

Local authorities formed a jirga to secure release of the passengers. An official said that militants released 40 hostages after talks with the jirga. He said that 10 hostages had escaped.

Another 10 were still in custody of the militants. They are reported to have been shifted to some place in central Kurram and the militants had rejected the jirga’s appeal to release them.

Toor Ghar is believed to have become a den of militants and the provincial government and administration in the tribal area have failed to provide security to the people living there.Khalil Bangash, one of the freed passengers, said the militants were dressed as policemen.

They first set a vehicle of Tribal Electric Supply Company on fire and then started grabbing passengers.

Militants have succeeded in cutting off Kurram from the rest of the country and road travel from Kurram to Peshawar is not possible without security escort.

For the past three years people have been travelling to Peshawar via Afghanistan.

Militants frequently attack convoys around Toor Ghar, a hilly track between Thall and Chappari. The area is part of Hangu district and a hideout of militants.

Over 150 passengers have been killed and more than 200 injured in bomb blasts and ambushes carried out by militants in the area since the administration partially opened the main road to traffic.

Agencies add: Negotiations involving tribal elders were under way for the release of the remaining 10 hostages, regional government official Mumtaz Khan said.

“Now the militants only have 10 people in their custody, and efforts are under way to recover them,” Mr Khan said.