Around the World: Pakistan

Taliban seize top official

Taliban militants kidnapped the top government administrator and six of his guards in Pakistan's northwestern Swat valley yesterday, the group and officials said, dealing a blow to efforts to restore peace.

Khushal Khan was travelling by car to Mingora, the main town of Swat, when he was abducted by "miscreants", said Syed Mohammad Jawed, commissioner for the Malakand division which includes Swat.

Pakistani authorities last Monday struck a deal with Islamists to restore sharia law in an effort to pacify Swat, an alpine valley where the Pakistan military has struggled to put down a Taliban uprising.

Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in Swat, said the group claimed responsibility for abducting the administrator. "He is our guest. We have to discuss some issues with him. We will serve him with tea and then free him," he said.

(China Daily 02/23/2009 page6)