WANA, Aug 9: Fourteen soldiers of the Frontier Corps and a junior commissioned officer were kidnapped by armed men in the South Waziristan Agency on Thursday. An official of the political administration told Dawn in Wana that the paramilitary personnel were going to their camp in Sararogha from the Jandola Frontier Region.

He said the personnel were unarmed. The armed men stopped their vehicle near Mandana in the Spinkai Raghzai area. The kidnapped soldiers were later shifted to an unknown location.

The official, who did not want to be identified, said that no group had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. When Dawn approached an official of the Frontier Corps in Balahisar Fort, Peshawar, he declined to confirm or deny that such an incident had taken place.

Sources said that Spinkai Raghzai, where the soldiers were kidnapped, was the stronghold of militant commander Abdullah Mehsud who was killed during an encounter in Zhob area of Balochistan last month.