November 21, 2007	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 10, 1428

KOHAT, Nov 20: Local Taliban on Tuesday set free three women and a man they had kidnapped from Darra Adamkhel on Monday after

an ultimatum was given to the government by a 400-member jirga of the Bangash tribe to get them released by Wednesday noon.

The victims were kidnapped by Taliban during a checking of vehicles coming from Peshawar via the Indus Highway.

The released women and man were shifted to the house of Ustarzai Union Council Nazim Mahtabul Hassan on Tuesday night from Darra Adamkhel by political authorities.

Earlier, the jirga, held in the Ustarzai town and chaired by former chief justice of Peshawar High Court Ibne Ali, had condemned the violence in Kurram Agency and Darra Adamkhel in the strongest terms.

It held the federal and provincial governments responsible for the unrest and the mass killings in the Kurram Agency and Darra Adamkhel.

Meanwhile, thousands of people attended the funeral of a student, Sohail, in Ustarzai town. The student was killed on Monday by Taliban who handed over his body to his family on Tuesday afternoon.

After the killing of the student, the Taliban tied his body to a car and dragged it on the road in Darra Adamkhel Bazaar for several hours and then hanged it near the Kohat tunnel on Tuesday.

They had forcibly taken away the body from the Zarghun Khel hospital in Darra Adamkhel on Monday.

Because of the tense situation in Darra Adamkhel, authorities stopped the movement of traffic on the Indus Highway and through the Pakistan-Japan Friendship Tunnel since Monday to ensure safety of the people.

The traffic on the Kohat-Hangu road remained very thin as members of only one community could use it, whereas the people from the rival group were coming to Kohat through the Lachi route.

Bazaars in Kohat gave a deserted look on Tuesday as the people prepared for the worst.