Militants release 16 Pakistani soldiers

GHALLANAI, Pakistan, Sep 5 (Reuters) Pakistani militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban have released 16 paramilitary soldiers held captive in lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border, officials and tribal elders said today.

Nearly 240 soldiers were taken hostage by militants in South Waziristan tribal region last week.

Tribal elder Akhtar Gul Mehsud told reporters that militants had handed over six soldiers to a council of tribal elders. Earlier, the militants had released 10 soldiers captured in Mohmand tribal region on Saturday.

Militants in Mohmand had demanded the release of five of their comrades and the withdrawal of troops from checkposts in the region.

But, Syed Ahmed Jan, a senior government official in Ghallanai, the main town in Mohmand, said the release of the 10 was unconditional.

The military says the men are not captives but are stuck between rival tribal factions and unable to leave.

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

Violence in Pakistan, mainly in its northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border, has soared since the collapse of a peace deal with militants and an army crackdown on a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital in July.

REUTERS LPB BST1919