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India-Pakistan
Taliban release eight abducted employees of Gomal Zam dam
2013-09-15
[Dawn] Eight employees of the Gomal Zam Dam project were released Saturday, almost a year after they were kidnapped by Pak Talibs in South Wazoo tribal region.

A front man for the Governor house in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
confirmed all eight workers had been released.

The project workers -- Sub-Divisional Officer Shahid Ali Khan, Sub-Engineer Sanaullah, four security personnel and two other staffers -- were kidnapped on August 15, 2012 while they were travelling to Tank from the dam site in South Waziristan.

A month after their kidnapping, a faction of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) released a video of the kidnapped employees pleading to the government to fulfill the bully boys' demands and arrange for their safe release.

The release took place in South Waziristan region on Saturday after successful negotiations between a tribal jirga (council) and the bully boys.

A Taliban front man said the eight men were released as a "goodwill gesture" from the bully boys.

The incident comes two days after the government inaugurated the dam in South Waziristan's militancy-ravaged Khajori Katch area on Thursday.

On Monday, the military and intelligence chiefs and all major political parties huddled together in Islamabad at an All Parties Conference (APC) and resolved to initiate dialogue with bad boy Talibs battling the state.

A TTP front man welcomed the offer of peace talks, and there were unconfirmed reports of a Taliban shura (high council) meeting to deliberate over the offer.

Later this week, security forces and Pak Talibs were reported to have exchanged prisoners as a confidence building measure ahead of possible peace talks. The exchange -- of six TTP forces of Evil and two paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers -- was said to have taken place in Shawal area of South Waziristan agency.

The military, however, denied any such exchange had taken place.

It was unclear if the release of the Gomal Zam dam workers on Saturday was related in any way to the outcome of the APC earlier this week.
Posted by:Fred

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