 PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - Close to 300 Pakistani soldiers and officers have been held captive for four days after they were seized by pro-Taliban militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border without a shot being fired, government officials said Monday.
| One day relatively soon I expect to see a headline that sez "Entire Pak army held captive without a shot being fired". |
It was the first time government officials acknowledged that so many men had been captured and that they were being held hostage.
| I'm coming to understand how they've never managed to win a war. |
Near the capital, meanwhile, a powerful bomb ripped through a bus carrying government employees today, and was quickly followed by a second explosion, killing at least 15 people and wounding several others, police and an army spokesman said. The first explosion hit a bus traveling through Rawalpindi, killing at least 10 people, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said, without providing details.
Five more people were killed when a second bomb went off in another commercial area of Rawalpindi, said Mohammed Afzal, an area police official.
The government has asked tribal elders to intercede to seek the release of the soldiers, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the embarrassment the capture has caused the government.
| Have they thought about sending in two or three combat divisions and killing people until the troops are handed over with reparations? |
The militants have demanded that the military withdraw from South Waziristan and release 15 of their men from government custody.
| The government might say a few words at this point about who's supposed to have the monopoly on force within their sovreign borders. |
The capture of the soldiers on Thursday was a serious setback for the Pakistani military in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. It demonstrated the confidence of the militants in South Waziristan, a region that has been described as a virtual Taliban state, where the government has so little control that the military can move only with the consent of the local militants.
| So which one's the actual government and which one's a pretender? |
Foreign fighters are also known to live and operate in South Waziristan, but the captors of the soldiers seem to be Pakistanis who are sympathetic to the Taliban and Al-Qaida.
| Actually, they are the Taliban and al-Qaeda. |
The capture took place after a verbal argument between officers and some militants. "Not a single shot was fired," one official said.
"Surrender to us, the Mighty Pak Army, youse militants!"
"Aaaaar! Youse ain't so much! Youse can surrender to us!"
"Hokay." |
The government has been reluctant to comment publicly on the situation. The chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, has said little and could not be reached for comment on Monday. He has told reporters over the last few days that the soldiers had not been captured, but were lodging with tribal villagers after running into poor weather.
| The villagers were taking turns pulling their guests' pants down and giving them Dutch rubs. |
But in comments made Monday to the television channel Dawn News, Arshad admitted that the soldiers were being held hostage.
| And everybody was just so surprised! |
A tribal member of Parliament, Sen. Saleh Shah, asked to help mediate their release, said the militants were demanding the withdrawal of the military from their area and the release of their comrades.
| In other words, they demand the gummint cede sovreignty to them in that area. But they'll want the gummint to ensure that no foreign real army comes into the territory to kill them. |
The government rounded up 100 Mehsud tribesmen in the area soon after the soldiers were captured, but released the men again as part of the negotiations. The Taliban militants holding the soldiers are loyal to the Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, a veteran of fighting in Afghanistan and the strongman of the area. He is demanding that the government return to a peace agreement made in February 2005, which gave an amnesty to the militants as long as they refrained from attacking government installations and vehicles.
The agreement broke down last month when the Pakistani military redeployed troops in a new operation against the militants and foreign fighters in the region, and the militants declared the deal over. |
