300 Pak schoolkids taken hostage by militants, freed by local residents

The militants took control of the government-run primary school in Dir district of the North West Frontier Province and held the children hostage for several hours. Local residents rushed to the school and rescued their wards after exchanging fire with the militants, killing two of them while the third escaped, TV channels reported.

The two dead militants had explosives strapped to their bodies and they blew up during the gunbattle.

Police and local residents were not certain whether the militants blew themselves up or had exploded after being hit by bullets. All the children were freed unhurt, the school management said.

The Dir district is located near the restive Bajaur tribal region and the troubled Swat valley in the NWFP. People in Dir have formed committees to expel the Taliban from the area. The Pakistani Taliban have been running a Terror campaign to close down girls’ schools in the tribal region. The Taliban have burnt over 100 girls’ schools in Swat valley over the past few months.

The army enforced curfew in the Khar area, the chief town in Bajaur region, to keep a veil on the troop movement as military vehicles and tanks rumbled through the region, scene of intense clashes for the past few weeks in which over 700 militants are reported to have been killed.