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Militants take 71 Pakistani security personnel hostage in Buner

by hussain | April 28, 2009 at 10:29 pm

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Militants have taken at least 71 Pakistani police and paramilitary security agency personnel hostage in Buner district of troubled North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after invited them to a mosque for talks, as the Pakistani security forces backed by jetfighters and helicopters launched operation agianst militants in the district on Tuesday.

Armed militants in Pir Baba area of Buner district took hostage, at least, 71 security officials after inviting them to talks in a local mosque near the famous shrine, a source from the troubled district told The News.

It was learnt that those who were made hostage included the station house officer (SHO) of the Pir Baba police station, his 20 cops and around 50 personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC).

The sources said that the militants had invited the SHO and other cops to the mosque for talks at around 7:00 pm. They were later made hostage and armed militants were directed not to let any of them go outside. It may be mentioned here that the FC is at the disposal of the local police in Buner as is the case in several other troubled areas.