Pakistani army rescues kidnapped students
By Sheree Sardar
ISLAMABAD, June 2 (Reuters) - Scores of kidnapped Pakistani students and staff from a military-run college who were abducted by Taliban militants in the northwest of the country were rescued on Tuesday, a military spokesman said.
The abduction took place on Monday as the Pakistani army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, in another part of the northwest.
Separately, a high court ordered the release of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of an outlawed militant group which was accused of organising an assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in November, his lawyer said.
Saeed's release is likely to dismay India, which has demanded that Pakistan "dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism" since the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed, and which strained ties between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said the Taliban were taking the kidnapped students to the South Waziristan region, a militant stronghold on the Afghan border, when soldiers challenged them on a road and a clash erupted.
"Under cover of the firing the militants escaped and we have recovered them all," Abbas said, adding 71 students and nine members of staff had been rescued.
Taliban fighters with hand grenades seized the students' convoy heading home for the summer holiday from the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun region, on the Afghan border, to the town of Bannu, 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Islamabad.
Bannu police chief Iqbal Marwat said on Monday that Taliban had seized up to 400 people in 28 vehicles but scores escaped. The vice principal of the college, Javed Alam, later told Reuters about 200 had managed to slip away.
The surge of militant violence in Pakistan has alarmed the United States, which needs Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and get to grips with the Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
There are several Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked groups based in North and South Waziristan in a loose alliance with the Taliban in Swat. South Waziristan is also the base of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
While the military has not announced any plans for an offensive after Swat is secured, officials have said a South Waziristan operation looked inevitable.
IMMENSE SUFFERING
Pakistan launched an offensive against a growing Taliban insurgency in the Swat valley, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, a month ago, sparking a flood of fleeing civilians.
Officials say an estimated 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Swat and adjoining areas, prompting U.N. warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations launched an appeal for $543 million last week but just over a fifth has been funded.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged countries to scale up their response, warning that the suffering was immense.
"If we do not get the rest of the funds, we will have to start cutting services," Ban told a briefing in New York, adding there was a risk of a destabilising secondary crisis.
U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Monday he would visit Pakistan this week to assess relief efforts to help the displaced. [ID:nND01405033]
The United States has welcomed the offensive in Swat but a protracted humanitarian crisis could undermine Pakistani public support for the fight against the Islamist militants. The United States has offered $110 million in aid for the displaced.
Saeed, the Islamist ordered released in Lahore, was put under house arrest in early December after a U.N. Security Council committee added him and an Islamist charity he heads to a list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda or the Taliban.
"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 when announcing the release order.
Saeed founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group in 1990 and for years it battled Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region. The group was banned in Pakistan in 2002.
Saeed is also head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which the United Nations said in December was a front for the LeT.
India says the Mumbai assault was carried out by LeT militants who must have had backing from some Pakistani agencies.
Pakistan has acknowledged the attacks in India's financial capital were launched and partly planned from Pakistan's soil, and that the sole surviving attacker was Pakistani.
Pakistan has lodged police complaints against eight suspects but Saeed was not among them. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Zeeshan Haider, Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
ISLAMABAD, June 2 (Reuters) - Scores of kidnapped Pakistani students and staff from a military-run college who were abducted by Taliban militants in the northwest of the country were rescued on Tuesday, a military spokesman said.
The abduction took place on Monday as the Pakistani army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, in another part of the northwest.
Separately, a high court ordered the release of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of an outlawed militant group which was accused of organising an assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in November, his lawyer said.
Saeed's release is likely to dismay India, which has demanded that Pakistan "dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism" since the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed, and which strained ties between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said the Taliban were taking the kidnapped students to the South Waziristan region, a militant stronghold on the Afghan border, when soldiers challenged them on a road and a clash erupted.
"Under cover of the firing the militants escaped and we have recovered them all," Abbas said, adding 71 students and nine members of staff had been rescued.
Taliban fighters with hand grenades seized the students' convoy heading home for the summer holiday from the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun region, on the Afghan border, to the town of Bannu, 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Islamabad.
Bannu police chief Iqbal Marwat said on Monday that Taliban had seized up to 400 people in 28 vehicles but scores escaped. The vice principal of the college, Javed Alam, later told Reuters about 200 had managed to slip away.
The surge of militant violence in Pakistan has alarmed the United States, which needs Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and get to grips with the Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
There are several Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked groups based in North and South Waziristan in a loose alliance with the Taliban in Swat. South Waziristan is also the base of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
While the military has not announced any plans for an offensive after Swat is secured, officials have said a South Waziristan operation looked inevitable.
IMMENSE SUFFERING
Pakistan launched an offensive against a growing Taliban insurgency in the Swat valley, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, a month ago, sparking a flood of fleeing civilians.
Officials say an estimated 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Swat and adjoining areas, prompting U.N. warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations launched an appeal for $543 million last week but just over a fifth has been funded.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged countries to scale up their response, warning that the suffering was immense.
"If we do not get the rest of the funds, we will have to start cutting services," Ban told a briefing in New York, adding there was a risk of a destabilising secondary crisis.
U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Monday he would visit Pakistan this week to assess relief efforts to help the displaced. [ID:nND01405033]
The United States has welcomed the offensive in Swat but a protracted humanitarian crisis could undermine Pakistani public support for the fight against the Islamist militants. The United States has offered $110 million in aid for the displaced.
Saeed, the Islamist ordered released in Lahore, was put under house arrest in early December after a U.N. Security Council committee added him and an Islamist charity he heads to a list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda or the Taliban.
"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 when announcing the release order.
Saeed founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group in 1990 and for years it battled Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region. The group was banned in Pakistan in 2002.
Saeed is also head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which the United Nations said in December was a front for the LeT.
India says the Mumbai assault was carried out by LeT militants who must have had backing from some Pakistani agencies.
Pakistan has acknowledged the attacks in India's financial capital were launched and partly planned from Pakistan's soil, and that the sole surviving attacker was Pakistani.
Pakistan has lodged police complaints against eight suspects but Saeed was not among them. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Zeeshan Haider, Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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