Pro-Taliban militants on Friday released 25 of nearly 250 soldiers they have been holding captive for weeks after the army agreed to pull out of two posts in the northwest, an official and tribal elders said.| Seems like only yesterday the Pak army was grimacing fearsomely and bragging they were gonna stamp out extremism. Or is kidnapping 250 purported soldiers and chopping the heads off one or two of them to keep the rest in line not an example of extremism? |
| I'm trying to figure why it doesn't raise doubts about the abilities of the vaunted Pak army. But of course they've got their record to fall back on. The desire of so many in Pakistain to overtly change sides in the war -- vice the covert manner they've been engaging in -- shows the dangers of groupthink... |
“It’s a good beginning,” said a senior administration official in Wana, South Waziristan’s main town.The militants have been demanding the release of captured comrades and the withdrawal of troops from three posts in the region. The official said security forces had abandoned two hilltop positions after militants demanded that the government abide by a peace agreement signed in 2005.
Remaining soldiers will be released when demands met: Another tribal elder, Aisam-ud-din, said the militants would release the remaining soldiers if their demands were met.
Attacks on security forces and abductions of soldiers have surged in PakistanÂ’s volatile northwest since July, after army commandos stormed the Lal Masjid in Islamabad and militants scrapped a nine-month-old peace deal in North Waziristan. Suicide bombers have also struck near army headquarters in Rawalpindi and at a commando base near Islamabad. Several hundred people, most of them members of the security forces and militants, have been killed.