ISLAMABAD, 29 January 2008 — A gang of seven gunmen who took up to 250 schoolchildren and teachers hostage at a village school in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan yesterday released their hostages and surrendered to tribal elders.
The gunmen, who had barged into the school near the town of Bannu while escaping police after kidnapping a health department official and his driver earlier in the day, gave themselves up to a delegation of tribal negotiators, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
“All the children have been released and the criminals have surrendered,” said Cheema, adding that none of the children were hurt.
The surrender followed daylong negotiations with local elders, who held a tribal council known as a jirga. Cheema told Arab News that the men surrendered to local elders rather than the police.
The police were able to release the health department official and his driver following a shootout before the militants entered the school. Jirga members held both the government and militants — backed by local militant leader Maulana Fazlullah — responsible for the situation. They demanded the government immediately halt its military operations, and asked militants to leave the area.
The jirga said that the economy, tourism industry, education and peace and harmony of the Swat area had been ruined by clashes between security forces and militants.
Speaking about the incident, President Pervez Musharraf, told reporters in London that the gunmen were “extremists.”
Meanwhile, the military said there was heavy fighting yesterday between security forces and militants in two areas of South Waziristan on the Afghan border.
Security forces have been battling insurgents led by a militant chief who the government said was behind the assassination last month of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
One soldier had been killed and nine wounded in the fighting. More than 150 militants and 20 soldiers have been killed in the South Waziristan fighting this month.
In neighboring North Waziristan, two soldiers were killed in a militant attack on a check-post, while three policemen were killed in another attack in the Orakzai tribal region on Sunday night, officials said.
