Taliban 'kidnap 30 Pakistani boys'

Suspected Taliban militants are holding a group of around 30 Pakistani boys after luring them into Afghanistan and kidnapping them, Pakistani officials said.

The insurgents initially seized around 40 youngsters, but those under 12 were released and travelled back to their villages in the Pakistani border region of Bajur, said its senior political official, Islam Zeb.

It was unclear why they were kidnapped, but militants often target people from tribes who oppose or do not support them.

The boys, aged between 10 and 15, went to Afghanistan’s Kunar province on Thursday after a man invited them to play in a river there, said Mr Zeb. They were from villages close to the border.

He said elders are negotiating with the captors to free all the boys.

In Afghanistan, Kunar police said they are investigating but have no reports of such an incident.

In recent months, there have been several bloody cross-border raids by militants from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

Pakistani officials have said the attackers were militants who had fled its army operations in Pakistan and were using Afghan soil as a safe haven.

Mr Zeb said the militants holding the boys were from a group that used to operate in the Bajur region.