Pakistani Military Rescues Kidnapped Pakistani Students

This episode isn't quite over, but this is good news. Hundreds of Pakistani students and teachers were kidnapped by Taliban groups yesterday, and the Pakistani military set up checkpoints and stopped the group. A firefight ensued and a number of students were freed.

The Taliban were taking the kidnapped students to South Waziristan when soldiers challenged them on a road and a clash erupted, said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.

"Under cover of the firing the militants escaped and we have recovered them all," Abbas said.

Abbas said 71 students and nine members of staff had been rescued.

Taliban fighters with hand grenades seized the students' convoy heading home for the summer holiday from the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun region, on the Afghan border, to the town of Bannu, 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Islamabad.

Bannu police chief Iqbal Marwat said on Monday that Taliban had seized up to 400 people in 28 vehicles but scores had escaped.

The vice principal of the college, Javed Alam, later told Reuters about 200 had managed to slip away and had arrived at Bannu.

Given there were perhaps 400 students and teachers captured, we have an accounting for perhaps 280 people in total. There's perhaps another 120 people who remain unaccounted for.