Scores of kidnapped Pakistani students and staff from a military-run college who were abducted by Taliban militants in the northwest of the country have been rescued.
They had been kidnapped yesterday as the Pakistani army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, in another part of the northwest.
The Taliban were taking the kidnapped students to South Waziristan when soldiers challenged them on a road and a clash erupted.
Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said: 'Under cover of the firing the militants escaped and we have recovered them all.'
Gen 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, 240km southwest of Islamabad.
Bannu police chief Iqbal Marwat said last night that Taliban had seized up to 400 people in 28 vehicles but scores had escaped.
The vice principal of the college, Javed Alam, later said about 200 had managed to slip away and had arrived at Bannu.
