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FACTBOX: Security developments in Pakistan

Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:49am EDT

(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Pakistan at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Monday:

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* denotes new or updated items.

ORAKZAI - Helicopter gunships struck a militant compound in the Orakzai tribal region in northwest Pakistan, killing several militants and destroying two vehicles packed with weapons and ammunition, a security force official said.

ORAKZAI - A militant spokesman in the region threatened to kill 39 hostages, including 24 policemen and 15 government employees, if security forces carried out more attacks against them.

* BAJAUR - Pakistani fighter jets pounded militants' hideouts in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border after Taliban announced a ceasefire for the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Fitr, later this week, killing 10 militants, a paramilitary official said.

At least eight militants were also killed in overnight fighting with security forces.

PESHAWAR/SWAT - Police said they had no clue about the whereabouts of Afghanistan's top diplomat, kidnapped in Peshawar last week, or a Polish engineer kidnapped near Attock town on Sunday. A Taliban spokesman in the Swat Valley said indirect talks were underway with the Chinese embassy for the release of two Chinese engineers kidnapped last month. The Taliban were demanding the release of 136 people detained by the government, the militant spokesman said. The spokesman said he had no information about the Afghan diplomat or the Polish engineer.

(Reporting by Kamran Haider, Ibrahim Shinwari, Sahibzada Bahauddin; Editing by Robert Birsel and Valerie Lee)



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