Pro-Taliban militants abducted seven troops from a check-post at Tall in NWFP in the latest kidnapping to rock the military, officials said Wednesday. The insurgents surrounded the post at Tall in the Frontier province late Tuesday and abducted seven soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, senior police official Mirza Khan said.
"The soldiers informed their base that a large number of militants have surrounded their post," he told AFP, adding that the rebels took them away before reinforcements could reach the area. The military has been hit by a series of militant attacks and abductions that have claimed the lives of scores of troops since July's government raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.
Fifteen soldiers were killed earlier this week and some of their bodies mutilated after a clash with rebels in North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. A suicide bomber killed 20 elite commandos from an anti-al Qaeda unit in a brazen attack on their base last Thursday, and earlier in the month two dozen intelligence officials died in an attack on their bus. Insurgents are still holding around 250 soldiers who surrendered without firing a shot in South Waziristan nearly three weeks ago.
Militants abducted another 15 soldiers in August in the same tribal zone. One of the troops was beheaded by a group of teenage militants in a killing recorded on video, and the rest were freed later. The government, however, denied reports that the abductions and attacks were hurting the army's morale.
"They are fighting back the militants... the security forces are in high spirits," interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema told a weekly briefing when asked about the issue.
Cheema said negotiations were under way for the release of the troops in South Waziristan, adding: "There are encouraging signs and we hope that they would be released unconditionally and would be released very soon."