BANNU/KARAK, Jan 28: Gunmen took over 60 schoolchildren and eight teachers hostage in a school on Monday but freed them unharmed after local elders prevailed upon police to provide safe passage to the hostage-takers and save the lives of the students and teachers.

About eight militants, who had kidnapped a senior health official and his driver in Karak, took the children and teachers hostage in the high school of Walizar Kallay in the Domel area of Bannu. One of the kidnappers was killed during an exchange of fire with police.

The militants released the kidnapped men and entered the school. They held the students and teachers at gunpoint to avert a police action.

Sources said that local elders, including former MPA Qari Gul Azeem and former MNA Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz, held negotiations with the militants for the release of the students and teachers. The six-hour standoff ended when the elders persuaded police officers to avoid an armed action and provide safe passage to the gunmen.

The militants had kidnapped EDO (Health) Dr Hussain Jan and his driver Razzaq with their official vehicle near the Tablighee Markaz in Karak. The EDO was going to his office from the new DHQ hospital in the KDA Township.

Sources said that soon after the kidnapping, police chased the criminals and an exchange of fire took place near the Karark College. One of the kidnappers was killed and a constable, Mohammad Zahid, was injured.

The militants panicked and released the kidnapped men and abandoned the car on the highway. They later entered the school.

AFP adds: In London, President Pervez Musharraf told reporters after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the hostage incident vindicated his efforts to clamp down on extremism.

He said the hostage taking was “a desperate act, maybe to take away attention from the military operation outside. I think we will keep going strong on the side of acting against the terrorists”.

The British prime minister condemned the incident. “Terrorism and hostage-taking is completely unacceptable. It is an affront against humanity,” Mr Brown said.

“To have taken hostage children is something that the whole world will be both angry about and wanting to make sure is not something that will happen again,” he said at a joint press conference with President Musharraf.

A member of the negotiating team said they were forced to let the hostage-takers go to keep the children, who were mostly aged eight to 12, alive.

“They (hostage-takers) were armed with dynamite, hand-grenades, Kalashnikov rifles and other explosive material,” Shah Abdul Aziz told AFP.

“When the team of tribal elders entered the school the children were crying. They were hungry. Some had fainted due to fear. It was very painful scene,” Aziz said.

“During negotiations they repeatedly warned they would kill the children and blow up themselves if they were not allowed safe passage.

Since the children’s lives were more precious the elders decided to give the men safe passage. We had no other option,” he said, adding that weeping parents had hugged and kissed their children after they were freed.