Pro-Taliban militants on Tuesday released 19 soldiers who were abducted earlier this month in the rugged tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials and the army said. Armed insurgents kidnapped 16 soldiers from the South Waziristan tribal district on August 9 and seized another four security officials, including a colonel on Friday.
One of the soldiers was beheaded on August 14. The rebels later distributed a gory video of the execution, which was carried out by a teenaged boy with a knife. "They released the 19 security officials early Tuesday," senior administration official Rasool Khan Wazir told AFP in Wana. "The freed men have been handed over to tribal elders who will deliver them to the authorities in Wana later today," he said.
The release of soldiers was negotiated by a jirga, or a tribal peace committee of local elders and tribal MPs. Officials said the jirga had secured their release without condition. Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed the men had been freed.
"We have information that it is unconditional release. They are expected to be handed over to security officials later," Arshad told a private TV channel. The army had condemned on Monday the release of the video showing the slaying of the captive soldier. The video shows the victim saying just before his death that "security forces should not fight against the Taliban."
Local officials said the government had agreed to release some tribesmen who were detained after the abduction in South Waziristan to put pressure on tribes to release the soldiers, they said. "They were not linked to any terrorist activity," one official said.
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