Pro-Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud on Sunday freed over 200 soldiers who had been taken hostage in South Waziristan over two months ago on August 30, a day after General Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency, official sources and a military spokesman said. “The 211 soldiers the militants have released reached Wana,” military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times by phone from Rawalpindi. He also confirmed that the government had released 25 militants in exchange for the soldiers’ freedom. The militants released by the government include Sohail Zeb, a 24-year-old convicted “terrorist”, who is a relative of slain Taliban commander Abdullah Mehsud. Officials said the soldiers and militants had been exchanged through jirga members at Tiarza tehsil, 25 kilometres northeast of Wana.
Baitullah Mehsud demanded the release of 30 militants that the government had taken into custody for terrorism charges as well as the withdrawal of the military from South Waziristan’s Mehsud areas in exchange for the release of the soldiers. The militants released 31 soldiers last month but killed three others. General Waheed said the militant group gave the tribal jirga an “understanding” that foreign militants would be “expelled” from Mehsud areas and security forces would not be attacked if their positions in the area did not change.