Militants attack Pakistani town

[bemildred]

Hundreds of heavily-armed militants have attacked security forces in north-west Pakistan, officials say.

Up to 25 militants died, police said, along with a soldier and a civilian in the town of Tank near South Waziristan in the troubled Afghan border area.

Security posts and property were said to have been attacked by militants with rockets in a seven-hour onslaught.

Armed men also seized the headmaster of a school, where two people died when police and militants clashed on Monday.

BBC

[Eugene]

1. Taliban free Pakistan school principal

Source: Agence France-Presse

Taliban free Pakistan school principal

Sat Mar 31, 2:08 AM ET

WANA, Pakistan (AFP) - Taliban militants freed the principal of a high school
who was kidnapped four days ago for stopping the rebels recruiting his students,
his family said.

Farid Mehsud, principal of the Oxford Public School in Tank, which borders the
restive South Waziristan tribal region, and his brother Humayun were abducted
by about a dozen gunmen from his house on Tuesday.

The previous day a militant leader and a policeman were killed in a clash
outside the school after police called by Mehsud prevented the Taliban entering
to recruit young men to fight in Afghanistan.

"I have received a telephone call from a tribal jirga (council of elders) that both
of them have been released," their brother Khurshid told reporters in Tank on
Friday.

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070331/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistantalibanunresteducation_070331060812