ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: Gunmen kidnapped seven soldiers from a bus on Wednesday, military officials said.

The gunmen took the seven soldiers and let go a sweeper on the bus with them, a military official said. The gunmen were wearing military uniforms, other sources said.

The men were travelling between army headquarters in Rawalpindi and their stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when they were taken off their bus in Jand in Punjab province.

Taliban commander Tariq Afridi, who has forces in the area, was not available for comment and no Taliban spokesman returned calls seeking comment.

Last week the Taliban kidnapped 23 paramilitary pro-government forces. Twenty-one of their bodies, bound, blindfolded and shot in the head, were discovered on Sunday. One man escaped and another was badly wounded.—Reuters