Militants abduct Pakistani government workers

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, May 19 (Reuters) Pro-Taliban militants have kidnapped eight Pakistani government development workers in a tribal region on the Afghan border, a senior official said today.

The workers, including five women, were abducted yesterday evening while visiting sites for aid projects in North Waziristan, where the government signed a controversial peace deal aimed at ending militant violence last September.

''More than 100 militants ambushed their vehicle and took the eight officials with them,'' security chief for the tribal region, Arbab Arif, told Reuters.

The kidnappers freed several guards accompanying the workers and the guards reported the abduction.

''We have engaged tribal elders of the area for their release,'' Arif said.

No demands had been made, another official said.

North and South Waziristan are hotbeds of support for Islamist militancy. Many foreign al Qaeda members took refuge there after U S-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

Beginning in 2003, Pakistani security forces launched offensives in the two regions as part of efforts in the U S-led campaign against Islamist militant violence.

But the government later struck peace deals aimed at reinvigorating traditional powers of leaders of the ethnic Pashtun tribes, which inhabit both sides of the border, and isolating the militants.

Critics say the pacts have given the militants free rein and have let them expand their influence.

REUTERS AGL HT1532