KOHAT, Nov 24: The Taliban of Darra Adamkhel backed out of their promise to release all hostages by Friday evening and kept elders and officials waiting in a hall here for the second consecutive day on Saturday.

A Taliban spokesman, commenting on the issue of hostages’ release, told Dawn that they had conveyed to the authorities that they would swap the hostages with the people being detained by their rival group in Kurram agency.

The Taliban have been testing the patience of the helpless administration and the jirga members, including the families of the hostages, by extending deadlines and breaking promises since Monday.

The Kohat jirga of the Bangash tribe had given a list of five missing people held by Taliban in Darra whereas the authorities were demanding the release of all people kidnapped by Taliban. The authorities said that Taliban had taken between 20 and 27 people hostage.

Many questioned the tactics the government adopted for the release of the hostages by not threatening Taliban with military action or some other stern action under the 40 Frontier Crimes Regulations. The Taliban had earlier killed four people and dragged their bodies on the road in Darra Adamkhel to instil fear among the people.

“The Taliban have promised in the afternoon to release all the hostages taken by them from the vehicles on the Indus Highway in Darra Adamkhel on Monday and Tuesday last but they are now making lame and fake excuses, which have made the situation very tense,” a spokesman for district coordination officer told Dawn.

The officials and the negotiating team members led by Maulana Rafiullah started fresh talks with Taliban after the evening deadline passed and the negotiations were continuing in Darra Adamkhel on Saturday.

The Taliban said they had kidnapped eight men, excluding the four they had killed on Monday and three women and a man released on Wednesday. But the actual figure of hostages reportedly belonging to the Kurram Agency and other parts of the country was much higher. Some reports suggest it might be between 23 and 27, an official said.

The Taliban told chief negotiator Maulana Rafiullah that a man named in the list of hostages was not in their custody, but at the same time they had failed to produce some other victims.

The militants took away cellphones from officials and drivers accompanying Maulana Rafiullah which created problems for the authorities to know the exact situation in Darra Adamkhel, the official told Dawn.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here said the Taliban had positioned themselves on top of mountains to guard the tribal area of Darra Adamkhel against any likely attack by members of the tribes whose members were killed or made hostage.