Taliban militants allegedly made captive more than 30 Pakistani children from Bajaur Agency who had mistakenly crossed over into Afghanistan on Thursday, but reportedly freed 10 of them on Friday.
Officials said the children, aged between 12 and 18, were traveling from border villages to the Gharkhi Pass, a crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and had mistakenly crossed over the border into Afghanistan, where they were made captive by Taliban militants. After coming to know about the children’s disappearance, the officials and tribesmen of the area have initiated efforts to recover them. Officials in Khar, headquarters of Bajaur Agency, confirmed on Friday that the children were in being held captive by militants across the border in Afghanistan. So far Taliban militants have not made any demands. “These boys inadvertently crossed into Afghanistan while picnicking on the second day of Eid and were kidnapped by militants,” senior local administration official Syed Nasim told AFP. Bajaur administration official Islam Zeb said the boys had been abducted by a militant group allied with Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who led insurgents in Bajaur but is believed to have fled to Afghanistan in 2010. Two local intelligence officials confirmed those reports. Afghan border police commander General Aminullah Amarkhel, the governor of Kunar, where the boys vanished, Fazlullah Wahidi, and the local Afghan Taliban commander all told AFP they were unaware of the incident.
10 CHILDREN FREED: Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters after his visit to Central Jail, Karachi later on Friday that the kidnappers had freed 10 of the children, adding that he had spoken to his Afghan counterpart about the immediate release of the remaining abducted children.
