Security forces rescued on Tuesday morning 81 students and teachers of the Razmak Cadet College after an exchange of fire with militants in Garyom area of North Waziristan, according to a senior government official. But, 35 students and two teachers are still missing.There were conflicting reports about the number of students and teaching staff kidnapped by the Taliban in Bakkakhel of the Bannu Frontier Region when they were going home on Monday.Bannu police put the number at 540, basing their claim on statements by students and teachers who had managed to escape the militants’ dragnet. But a senior official of the tribal administration told Dawn that 300 students and 50 teachers and members of their families had left the college.‘This confusion was because of the unknown number of family members who were accompanying the faculty members. Our guess is that the total number was 400 plus,’ Additional Chief Secretary of Fata Habibullah Khan said.He said that in the melee, many cadets and teachers had managed to escape and reach home. ‘It took us the whole day to call homes and try to locate individuals in Peshawar, Bannu and other places. Many of them managed to reach home on their own.’Mr Habibullah said that 37 people remained unaccounted for and the administration believed they were held somewhere on the border between North and South Waziristan. ‘We think that they have not yet been taken to Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan,’ he added.The authorities have asked tribal elders in Janikhel, Bakkakhel and North Waziristan to hold talks with the militants and ensure early recovery of the hostages.
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
81 Razmak students, teachers rescued, 37 still missing
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India 'unhappy' over Hafiz Saeed release
The Indian government said Tuesday it was ‘unhappy’ over a court decision to release the head of an Islamic charity India says was linked to last year's Mumbai siege.‘We are unhappy that Pakistan has not shown the degree of seriousness and commitment it should have to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks,’ Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters.Lahore High Court on Tuesday declared the detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and three other members of his party unlawful.An Indian foreign ministry official told AFP that New Delhi was carefully watching to see ‘whether the government in Pakistan will appeal against the court order.’India says the charity is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed for a 2001 raid on the Indian parliament and last November's Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.Pakistan had sealed offices of the Dawa within weeks of the Mumbai attacks after a UN Security Council resolution described the charity as a terror group.Islamabad had frozen the group's assets besides placing Saeed —also the founder of LeT —under house arrest.Pakistan has however refused to hand over Saeed or ‘any fugitives from Indian law’ named in a list of 42 wanted men India says are being sheltered by Pakistan.
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Brazilian air force aircraft searching the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday for a missing Air France flight that had been carrying 228 people have found debris from a plane, AFP quoted an air force spokesman as saying.The ‘small remains’ were located 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of Brazil’s Fernando do Noronha island.It could not immediately be confirmed that the debris were from Air