The New York Times-20080129-Gunmen Allowed to Flee After Hostage Standoff at Pakistan School

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Gunmen Allowed to Flee After Hostage Standoff at Pakistan School

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A mass hostage-taking ended peacefully on Monday when a group of armed men released more than 200 schoolchildren after holding them for several hours in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.

The gunmen, who the government said had previously been involved in ransom kidnappings, were allowed to flee, local officials said.

The children, ages 8 to 12, were taken hostage along with their teachers in the Bannu District of the North-West Frontier Province after the armed men briefly kidnapped a top local health official in the neighboring Karak District.

The police in Karak gave chase and, in a firefight, killed one gunman. The others released the local official, Dr. Hussain Jan, along with his driver, the officials said.

The gunmen then forced their way into a primary school in Domail, in Bannu, the local news media reported. Police officers and security forces surrounded the school compound, urging the gunmen to surrender and to release the children and their teachers. But the gunmen threatened to blow themselves up and kill the children if they were not provided safe passage, news agencies reported.

There were conflicting reports of how many children were held. The Interior Ministry said the number was 200 to 250, but some reports said there were fewer than three dozen.

A delegation of tribal elders eventually went into the school to negotiate.

Javed Iqbal Cheema, a retired brigadier who is the head of national crisis management in Islamabad, said the elders had persuaded the gunmen to surrender.

All children have been freed, Mr. Cheema said. No one was hurt.

The elders allowed the gunmen to leave, according to news agency reports based on interviews with some of the negotiators.

The Interior Ministry characterized the gunmen as criminals in what seemed to be an effort to distinguish them from pro-Taliban tribal extremists.

Bannu District lies adjacent to the restive, semiautonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border in northwestern Pakistan, where pro-Taliban extremists have been battling the Pakistani Army.

Government and army installations in Bannu have come under repeated attack as the militants' influence has spread across the tribal areas into the settled districts of North-West Frontier Province.

President Pervez Musharraf, who was in London on a visit to Europe, called the situation an act of desperation.

Separately, an American diplomat was found dead in Islamabad on Monday in what is suspected to be a suicide, Pakistani and Western officials said.

The United States Embassy identified the man as Keith Ryan, 37, a senior special agent in Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mr. Ryan had been serving in the United States mission in Islamabad since November 2006, according to a statement released by the embassy. He leaves a wife and three young children.

Mr. Ryan was a well-respected, trusted and longtime member of the U.S. Mission in Pakistan, the embassy statement said. His death is a great loss.

The police officials in Islamabad said Mr. Ryan's body had been found in the bathroom of his residence in an upscale neighborhood. There was a bullet wound on his head. The embassy statement said that there would be an investigation but that there did not appear to be any foul play.

[Illustration]PHOTO: The police surrounded a school in Domail, Pakistan, after more than 200 were held hostage. The standoff ended peacefully. (PHOTOGRAPH BY IJAZ MOHAMMAD/ASSOCIATED PRESS)