Taliban militants kidnap 20 Pakistani boys in Afghanistan

[News_Editor]

Taliban militants kidnap 20 Pakistani boys in Afghanistan

2011-09-03 06:53:48 GMT+7 (ICT)

ISLAMABAD (BNO NEWS) -- Taliban militants have kidnapped at least 20 Pakistani children who mistakenly crossed the border in the country's northwest into Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday when the group of boys, aged between 10 and 18, were visiting the Ghaki Pass area in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal district for celebrations marking the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. The children then mistakenly crossed into the Afghan province of Kunar.

Around 50 Taliban militants surrounded the children and took them to an unknown place in around a dozen vehicles, a senior official in the district said as quoted by the German Press Agency DPA.

The exact number of kidnapped children is not clear. Local officials said the Taliban militants tried to take hostage 40 children but 10 of them managed to flee while Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that 30 children were taken hostage but 10 of them had already returned.

Minister Malik further said that the Pakistani government was in contact with Afghan authorities for the safe release of the remaining children.

Meanwhile, a senior Afghan official who wished to remain anonymous said his government was looking into the incident. "I am aware that a number of civilians have crossed the border and have been disappeared but so far nothing official has came from our security organizations," he told DPA.

All the children taken hostage were from the Mamoond tribe, which has formed a militia to fight alongside government forces against the Taliban. The Mamoond tribe dispatched a group of elders, or jirga, to Afghanistan for negotiations with the Taliban for the release of the kidnapped children.

"Hopefully the jirga will return by this evening, and then we will know the demands of the Taliban," a local tribal elder said on Friday as quoted by DPA.

It was not clear whether the militants were of Afghan origin or they were Pakistani Taliban who have recently taken shelter in Afghanistan after Pakistani military operations. However, no group immediately claimed responsibility.

The Taliban militants have been conducting several assaults on security posts and attacked pro-government tribesmen in villages situated in the border region disputed between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last week, hundreds of Taliban militants from the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan attacked seven border posts in Pakistan's northern district of Chitral, killing 36 Pakistani security forces.

The Pakistani-Afghan border, which the United States considers to be the most dangerous place on Earth, is known to be a stronghold of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network, considered one of the top terrorist organizations and threats to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-09-03