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Pakistan rescues 80 students from Taliban

Fears of spiralling rebel attacks grow

AFP, Peshaivar
Pakistan said yesterday the military rescued 80 students and staff snatched by Taliban gunmen, as fears grew of spiralling rebel attacks to avenge a military'offensive in the northwest.
The hold-up, which targeted staff and students from an army-run college, came as a Pakistani-court ordered the release of the head of a charity widely viewed as a front for the banned Islamist group blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
Officials said 71 pupils and nine staff were rescued when militants moved them from
North Waziristan to South Waziristan — tribal zones on the Afghan border where Washington accuses al-Qaeda of plotting attacks on the West.
Sardar Abbas Rind, administrative chief in Bannu town where the students were headed when they were detained, said troops intercepted the rebels before dawn at a military checkpost 20 kilometres from the college.
"There was an exchange of fire after which the militants fled. All students and teaching staff members were rescued." he told .AFP
The kidnapping took place on the border between North West Frontier Province -- where Pakistan is pressing its anti-Taliban assault - and the lawless semi-autonomous tribal areas, where militants have carved out strongholds.
Officials near the college, located in the town of Razmak in North Waziristan, said (he students were aged 15 to 25 and were not training for the army. No army, civilian or militant casualties were reported in the operation.
The students left their college on Monday after it closed for the summer and were heading in about 30 vehicles to Bannu when armed Taliban ambushed the convoy, Rind said. Many of the buses managed to get away, he added.
But details were hazy and officials gave wildly divergent accounts of how many students had gone missing, with numbers ranging from 20 to 400.
The incident has fuelled fears of revenge attacks for a month-long Pakistan offensive against the Taliban in the northwest.
"Whenever there is an army operation, such types of reactions are normal and we should be prepared for such retaliations in the future," said Ikram Sehgal, a security analyst and newspaper columnist.
The military campaign, now in its sixth week, was launched when Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad, flouting a deal to put three million people under Sharia law in exchange for peace.
More than 80 people have been killed in bomb blasts across the country since the operation began on April 26.
Pakistan's military said Tuesday that troops were fighting inside the Taliban stronghold of Charbagh, 20 kilometres from Swat valley's main town Mingora, which the government said it had won back over die weekend.
"Helicopters shelled east ern parts of Charbagh while ground forces are busy clearing the outskirts," said a military official, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The United States, which has strongly backed the operation, is sending special envoy Richard Holbrooke to Pakistan on Wednesday to examine the humanitarian crisis and meet some of the up to 2.4 million people displaced.
In Tank district on the fringes of the tribal areas, four paramilitary personal were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, local police official Sher Mohammad told AFP.