40 Pakistani troops 'captured by the Taliban'

[ajtr]

Dozens of Pakistani troops 'captured by the Taliban'​

The Afghan Taliban says it has captured dozens of Pakistani soldiers after attacking their checkpoint in a cross-border raid.

Pakistani security sources confirm some troops are missing.

The Taliban says it is holding up to 40 Pakistani troops after its raid in the Mohmand tribal area on Monday.

Afghan officials said eight soldiers had been handed over to the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, but Pakistan's army said it had no knowledge of this.

Checkpoint 'over-run'
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan says that while attacks by the Taliban on border check posts are relatively routine, it is unusual for Pakistani soldiers to be held by the militants in Afghanistan.


A Taliban spokesman told the BBC that it was in fact holding Pakistani troops on both sides of the border after Monday's attack.

It said 30 soldiers were being held in Afghanistan and 10 in Pakistan.

The Taliban says it captured the soldiers after over-running the checkpoint.

Local officials in the Mohmand area confirmed to the BBC that about 40 soldiers were unaccounted for.

Pakistani security sources said on Monday an undisclosed number of troops were missing.

An Afghan army commander in Jalalabad told the BBC that 10 Pakistani soldiers had been handed over to the Pakistani consulate, although the Pakistani army said it was not aware of this.

'Baseless propaganda'
Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban have dismissed the findings of a report which says Pakistan's intelligence service had a direct role in supporting the insurgents.

The Taliban remain strong on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border
In an e-mail sent to the BBC, the Taliban said the report was "baseless propaganda".

The report, compiled by a London School of Economics scholar, said Pakistani intelligence provided funding, training and sanctuaries to the Taliban on a much greater scale than previously thought.

"The Islamic Emirate considers this report of the London School of Economics as merely baseless propaganda," the letter said.

The Taliban have also denied reports that their fighters hanged a seven-year-old boy last week on charges of spying in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

"After a full investigation by the Islamic Emirate leadership, it became clear that no event of execution had taken place," a Taliban statement said.

The Taliban criticised journalists for misreporting the event.

 

[ajtr]

Now the question is- is it true or just like any other staged drama by PA, if we look this in the wake of latest revelations in LSE report that PA and isi actively helping Afghan talibans.Other point to consider is in after the report its the afghan taliban who is overwhelmingly denying receiving any help from PA or the ISI in as many articles published in pakistani newspapers in the last 2 days as much as they did so in above BBc news report too....

'Baseless propaganda'
Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban have dismissed the findings of a report which says Pakistan's intelligence service had a direct role in supporting the insurgents.

 

[Armand2REP]

You wonder why Taliban do not execute all PA soldiers. They execute everyone else if they cannot get a ransom. They must protect them for ISI not to get too mad at them or they will lose support. Also, how many Taliban does it take to capture 40 PA soldiers hold up in a border post?

 

[IBRIS]

You wonder why Taliban do not execute all PA soldiers. They execute everyone else if they cannot get a ransom. They must protect them for ISI not to get too mad at them or they will lose support.

Thats why they are good taliban in the eyes of pakistani's.

Also, how many Taliban does it take to capture 40 PA soldiers hold up in a border post?

What a shame these soldiers has brought on Pakistan for surrendering to these rag-tag thugs. 40 soldiers can create lot of damage if there moral's kept high.

Death Before Disgrace should be there moto.

 

[sob]

One can but imagine the situation of the ordinary Pakistani soldier, their so called enemy who is targeting them, is being feted and armed by their own bosses. It is better to surrender than to fight.

 

[DaRk WaVe]

Afghanistan hands over 14 missing personnel

By Fauzee Khan Mohmand
Friday, 18 Jun, 2010

GHALANAI: The Afghan authorities have handed over 14 of the 65 Pakistani soldiers who had gone missing after a militant attack on a border checkpoint on Sunday.

The soldiers are expected to arrive on Friday.

A security official said that a helicopter had been dispatched to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to bring back the soldiers to Peshawar.

According to last reports, their departure from Jalalabad was delayed because of the arrival of 12 militiamen from Kabul. The soldiers were shifted to Kabul from Kunar. Two of them were kept in Jalalabad, he said.

Another official said that 65 personnel of the Mohmand Rifles had gone missing following Sunday night's simultaneous attack on border posts at Mattak, Goraparai, Shokarai and Marjhana.

Fourteen of them were taken by their captors to Afghanistan. Officials claimed that 20 others returned to their base camp in Ghalanai.

Militants have returned the bodies of six militiamen after negotiations with a tribal jirga in the border region of Baizai. The body of Subedar Janas Khan was sent to his native town.

The officials admitted that 13 to 15 militiamen were still missing, but said that they might not be captured by militants.

Ikramullah Mohmand, a spokesman for militants, claimed that 10 militiamen had been held hostage and negotiations were being held with a jirga about their fate.

The officials told Dawn that such a high-level attack on Pakistani border posts could not be possible without the help of the Afghan National Army and Afghan border police in Kunar.

They said that Islamabad had on several occasions raised the issue with Kabul and the Nato's eastern command, but no action had been taken.

"The way the attack was launched with heavy weapons in the dark has all the tell-tale signs of support from the ANA and Afghan border police," the officials said.

An official at the political administration in Mohmand told Dawn that militants pushed out of Bajaur, Malakand and Swat had taken refuge across the border and were now attacking Pakistani security posts.

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Afghanistan hands over 14 missing personnel

 

[san]

First are they pakistani army or militiamen? Second why pakistan is blaming afgan army? Are not pakistan is fighting a war with Taliban or pakistan and taliban jointly fighting against afgan army? In Af-Pak, I think it is difficult to predict who is fighting whom.

 

[Oracle]

You wonder why Taliban do not execute all PA soldiers. They execute everyone else if they cannot get a ransom. They must protect them for ISI not to get too mad at them or they will lose support. Also, how many Taliban does it take to capture 40 PA soldiers hold up in a border post?

The main thing to wonder upon is whether '40 Pakistani troops captured' OR '40 Pakistani troops sold by topmost echelons of Pakistan Army and ISI' for sympathy and support.

 

[SHASH2K2]

I feel its a ploy by pakistani army to slow down operarion and ask USA for more weapons like frigates, submarines and planes that will help them against taliban.
==bump

 

[Armand2REP]

The main thing to wonder upon is whether '40 Pakistani troops captured' OR '40 Pakistani troops sold by topmost echelons of Pakistan Army and ISI' for sympathy and support.

So the answer to the queston, how many Taliban does it take to capture 40 PA soldiers is none. ISI hands them over?

 

[ajtr]

Pakistan recovers bodies of six soldiers​

Taliban militants have handed over the bodies of six Pakistani soldiers killed in an attack near the Afghan border but the hunt is still on for 34 who remain missing, officials say.

The bodies were handed over to tribal elders late Thursday, taken to a military base in the Mohmand tribal district and sent to their homes after funeral prayers, a military official said on Friday.

Some 34 soldiers are still unaccounted for, he said.

A political administration official in Mohmand confirmed that bodies of six soldiers had been handed over to tribal elders.

Dozens of paramilitary soldiers vanished after Taliban attacked their checkpost in a remote area of Mohmand near the Afghan border late Sunday.

Twenty-five soldiers who strayed into Afghanistan after the clashes have been handed back to Pakistani officials.

Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militant groups on multiple fronts across its sprawling tribal badlands, which Washington has described as the most dangerous place on the Earth.

The rugged terrain lying outside the direct government control, is considered al-Qaeda headquarters and a stronghold of militants plotting attacks on US-led troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

 

[ajtr]

Taliban offer prisoner swap, threaten to kill troops​

PESHAWAR: Taliban militants in Pakistan's northwest Tuesday offered the government a prisoner swap in return for 33 missing soldiers, threatening to kill the men if the proposal is rebuffed.
A Taliban spokesman told AFP that Pakistani authorities should "face the consequences" if they did not agree to the swap, calling for the details to be worked out in talks with tribal elders in Mohmand tribal district.

Security officials say 33 soldiers are still missing since the Taliban attacked a checkpost in a remote part of Mohmand along the Afghan border.

Six soldiers were killed in the attack and their bodies handed over to tribal elders last Thursday, officials said.

Another 25 soldiers strayed into Afghanistan after the clashes, but were handed back to Pakistani officials.

"Thirty-three soldiers are in our custody. We offer the government to exchange them in return of our colleagues," Qari Ikramullah, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban in Mohmand, told AFP by telephone.

"We are in a state of war, we have no resources to keep them in our prison. The government should accept this offer or face the consequences," he said.

"They will have to face death."

Major Fazal-ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, confirmed that 33 soldiers were missing but said authorities had received no offer of a swap with the Taliban.

"We have not received any such offer. If we do, then the government will make a decision on the offer," he added.