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Militants abduct 400 Pak students

Heavy clashes in Swat kill 18

All’, AP, Peshawar
Hundreds of Pakistani students were kidnapped by Taliban militants yesterday as they travelled from a restive tribal area near the Afghan border, police and government officials said.
The students from a cadet college in the tribal North Waziristan region were going to the northwestern town of Bannu in about 30 buses after the college closed for its summer vacation, Bannu town police chief Iqbal Marwat told AFP.
"Only two buses carrying some 25 students reached Bannu," Marwat said, adding that about 28 buses carrying around 400 students were missing.
"They have been kidnapped by Taliban militants," Marwat told AFP. The college is an army-run educational institution for civilians. Those kidnapped include students and civilian staff, he said.
Sources near the college in Razmak said the students are aged between 15 and 25 years and were not training for the army, but were follow-inga secular curriculum.
Mirza Mohammad Jihadi, an adviser on tribal affairs to Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also told local television that he had reports "they were kidnapped by laliban militants."
Javed Alam, vice principal of the college said the vehicles were carrying more than 300 students and some 30 staff members and employees of the college when they were stopped at Bakka Khel town near Bannu. "Militants started firing in the air to stop the vehicles and then they forcibly drove them to unknown place" Alam told a private tvchannel.
Officials said they had started negotiations with the militants to secure the release of the students.
Bannu's chief administrator, Kamran Zeb, has made contact with tribal elders as part of efforts to establish a dialogue with the militants, an official told AFP
"We are negotiating with the militants through tribal elders," Marwat also confirmed. "We hope they will be freed unharmed."
HEAVY CLASHES IN SWAT Pakistan reported heavy clashes yesterday on the outskirts of a key Taliban stronghold as troops closed in on militants in the Swat valley, where residents spoke of fear and deprivation.
Pakistan's northwest campaign has moved into a sixth week since Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad, flouting a deal to put three million people under Sharia law in exchange for peace.
Pakistan's army said it lifted curfews Monday in several parts of the Swat Valley as it hunted Taliban militants in the region, while insurgents killed two soldiers in a tribal region that could be the next front in the northwest military offensive.
In the Swat Valley, residents were trapped for days or weeks by the righting. The military said daytime curfews were lifted Monday in the Swat towns of Bahrain, Madyan, Fatehpur, Khwazakhela, Matta and Alpurai and in the nearby district of Shangla.
It was unclear whether the publicized orders were received in all the areas.
Iqbal Khan, an owner of a roadside restaurant in Bahrain, told an Associated Press reporter via phone on Monday: "There is no relaxation in curfew, and all the markets remained shut. There is an acute shortage of food and edibles."
Journalists have limited access to South Waziristan and Swat, making it difficult to independently verify information provided by the Pakistani military.
The military last week declared Mingora, the main town in Swat, back under government control but aid workers and witnesses have
underscored desperation in the city, where food and water are scarce, and electricity limited.
"Only a few shops are open, we are facing a severe shortage of food," Mohammad Usman, an elderly man told AFP from Mingora.
Analysts warn that authorities must rapidly restore basic services after the guns fall silent to stop the Taliban from exploiting frustrations and poverty to re-fuel the insurgency, as has happened after previous military operations.
The United States, which has strongly backed the latest offensive, says al-Qaeda and Taliban militants have carved quj.safe, havens from swathes of northwest Pakistan, where they are plotting attacks on the West
Red Cross officials who visited Swat said they were "gravely concerned" over the humanitarian situation owing to problems with running water, food, electricity and communications, and disturbed by conditions at one hospital.
"The handful of hospital staff left are struggling to work without any water, electricity or supplies," said Daniel O'Malley.
"They simply cannot cope with the influx of patients."
Pakistan has not released civilian casualty statistics during the offensive, saying only that more than 1,200 militants and around 90 soldiers have died.