Militants in Pakistan kidnap four including officer

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (Reuters) Islamist militants kidnapped four people, including a Pakistani paramilitary officer and a government official, in a tribal region on the Afghan border, military officials said today.

The four, who included two other paramilitary soldiers, had gone to meet militants at a religious school in the South Waziristan region for talks on security matters when they were abducted, an intelligence official said.

Violence in Pakistan, mainly in Waziristan and other parts of its lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, has escalated since the collapse of a peace deal with militants and an army crackdown on a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital Islamabad last month.

Early this month, militants in South Waziristan kidnapped 16 paramilitary soldiers. The militants killed one of them and have threatened to kill more unless 10 of their comrades were freed from detention.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban members took refuge in Waziristan and other remote, rugged regions on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border after US and Afghan opposition forces defeated the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Despite Pakistani efforts to clear out foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies, US security officials say Waziristan and other border areas are sanctuaries for al Qaeda and the Taliban where they can regroup and plot violence.

REUTERS RN PM1415