Talks underway for release of 150 captured Pakistani troops

Aug 31, 2007, 5:46 GMT

Islamabad - The Pakistani military and tribal leaders were Friday trying to secure the release of some 150 paramilitary troops captured by pro-Taliban insurgents in the border area by Afghanistan, an official said.

The Frontier Corps unit was travelling between the regional capital of Wana and Shakai in 16 vehicles when 'hundreds' of heavily armed militants blocked and surrounded the convoy, a senior security officer said on condition of anonymity.

The group was being held in mountains in the Ladha area, he added.

However, the central army command in Islamabad's twin city of Rawalpindi denied reports of the captures, saying contact was lost with the group while it was sheltering in a valley from a storm and that the convoy would shortly return to base.

A spokesman for a local rebel leader Baitullah Mehsud told the BBC that the soldiers were surrounded, disarmed and taken prisoner because the government was not honouring a peace deal.

Militants on Tuesday released 18 soldiers who were captured earlier this month in the border region, which the United States claims is a refuge for al-Qaeda and Taliban forces.

The area has also seen a growing number of attacks on security forces since the government troops in July stormed a radical mosque in the capital. At least 60 soldiers and 250 militants have been killed in clashes and bomb attacks in recent weeks.

Two soldiers were killed and six were injured Friday in Swat district in the restive North-West Frontier Province as dozens of pro-Taliban militants attacked a military checkpoint with rockets and mortars, news reports said.

One civilian died and two policemen were injured when a suicide bomber targetted reinforcements moving towards the checkpoint, local police chief Iqbal Khan told the Aaj news channel.

The militants withdrew after an hour of bombardment, leaving the checkpoint ablaze, he said. They later fired on an ambulance that was evacuating casualties but caused no further injury, he added.

In a separate incident in the tribal region of North Waziristan, a suicide bomber killed himself and a truck driver whose vehicle was parked near a security forces checkpoint, the channel reported.