Militants free 260 kidnapped troops

Pro-Taliban militants yesterday freed more than 260 Pakistani troops kidnapped nearly two weeks ago in a restive tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, security officials and a militant said.

The freed soldiers were handed over to members of a jirga or tribal council in Ladha, a village in South Waziristan where they had been abducted by militants on August 30, a local intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job.

Army spokesman Major Waheed Arshad had no confirmation of the troops' release.