ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military yesterday rescued 80 students and teachers from the clutches of the Taleban after a firefight with the militants. The students of Razmak Cadet College were kidnapped Monday when their convoy of vehicles was ambushed by the militants in the tribal agency of North Waziristan. The students and teachers were heading for Bannu when they were abducted.
Sardar Abbas Rind, administrative chief in Bannu, said troops intercepted gunmen before dawn at a military checkpoint 20 km from the college. “There was an exchange of fire after which the militants fled. All students and teaching staff members were rescued,” he said. The rescued students numbered 71. There were nine teachers.
But Javed Iqbal Paracha, principal of the college, said up to 15 students remained unaccounted for.
The students’ freedom came on a day when the Lahore High Court ordered the release of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the founder of banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, because there was insufficient evidence to link him to last year’s deadly Mumbai attacks.
Saeed heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity, which the United Nations said in December was a front for the Lashkar.
“The court has ordered that the detention of Hafiz Saeed was a violation of the constitution and the law of this country,” lawyer A.K. Dogar told reporters outside the Lahore High Court.
Saeed was put under house arrest in early December after a UN Security Council committee added him and JuD to a list of people and organizations linked to Al-Qaeda or the Taleban.
India said the court ruling was confirmation that Pakistan is not serious about bringing militants to justice. New Delhi has demanded that Pakistan vigorously pursue those behind the November siege of its commercial capital that killed 166 people and left nine of 10 gunmen dead. The survivor, Pakistani Mohammed Ajmal Qasab, was captured and is on trial in India.
Saeed was among several suspects taken into custody in December in Pakistan, which came under tremendous pressure from the United States and other governments to investigate domestic links to the attacks. “His release raises serious doubts over Pakistan’s sincerity in acting with determination against terrorist groups and individuals operating from its territory,” Vishnu Prakash, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said.
— With input from agencies
