Student Hostages Released From Pakistan High School
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen held dozens of students and teachers hostage for five hours at a school in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, but authorities allowed the captors to flee without punishment to avoid bloodshed, a tribal negotiator said.
None of the hostages were hurt. But the standoff underscored the government’s fragile grip on Pakistan’s borderlands near Afghanistan, where crime is rife and security forces are struggling to contain rising Islamic militancy.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in Pakistan, particularly in the northwest, and police said the gunmen were criminals seeking profit rather than militants.
The mounting violence has contributed to the growing unpopularity of President Musharraf, who was on his last stop Monday of a European tour. After talks with Prime Minister Brown of Britain, Mr. Musharraf insisted his American-backed policies to fight religious extremism were working. “I think we are succeeding,” he told a news conference. He also played down the kidnapping. “It was incidental that those criminals entered the school,” the president said. “It has been resolved peacefully.”
Police said the half-dozen gunmen seized control of the school near the town of Bannu after a botched attempt to kidnap the government health chief from a neighboring district.
Police had given chase, sparking a firefight in which one gunman died and a policeman was wounded. The health official and two relatives abducted with him were freed. The gunmen took refuge inside the school and threatened to kill the children, teachers, and themselves if anyone attacked. So tribal elders started negotiations while armed villagers and security forces stood guard outside, a former lawmaker, Shah Abdul Aziz, who was one of the negotiators, said. In return for releasing the captives and giving up their weapons, the gunmen were given safe passage and left for an unknown destination, he said. Local police and the government declined to comment on that report.
There was conflicting information on the number of children and teachers who had been held hostage. Mr. Aziz said there were 315 children, aged between 8 and 11, and 10 teachers. But a local police chief, Hamza Mehsud, said there had been only 25 children and seven teachers.
