Suspected militants have kidnapped a senior Pakistani army officer and three others in a restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday. Colonel Shahid Kiyani of Bajaur Scouts, two soldiers and an administration official were seized at gunpoint in the town of Ladha in South Waziristan late on Friday. “They were on their way to a seminary to meet some religious leaders when gunmen in two vehicles intercepted them,” local administration chief Rasool Khan told AFP. He said the local authorities and tribal elders were trying to secure the release of the kidnapped officials through talks with the leaders of the Mehsud tribe. The authorities are also trying to free 15 paramilitary soldiers kidnapped earlier this month in the same region. Militants beheaded one of them two weeks ago.
Also on Saturday, an army helicopter opened fire on a vehicle on a road near Miranshah – the main town in North Waziristan tribal region – killing three suspected militants, the army official said.
The official said the vehicle was targeted because it failed to stop at a checkpoint at Mir Ali, about 20 kilometers from Miran Shah. A villager said the slain men were not militants. “Three innocent villagers were travelling in a car, and they were killed by the army who fired from a helicopter,” said Daraz Khan, a resident of Mir Ali.