26 July 2004	Monday	08 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, July 25: Pakistani tribesmen took eight Afghan militiamen hostage along the porous north-western border with Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday. The Afghans were seized on Friday and brought to the Pakistani side following a dispute over a new tax on Pakistani tribal timber merchants, a security official said.

"We are trying to get the hostages released and hope the issue will be resolved soon," Pakistani security chief for the tribal area, Brigadier Mahmood Shah, told AFP. Brigadier Shah said the two sides exchanged fire before the kidnapping occurred.

Earlier this month Afghan tribesmen released four Pakistani policemen whom they had abducted from a village on the south-western border between the two countries following a territorial row. -AFP