Taliban kidnap 300 students, others in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, June 1 (Reuters) - Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan kidnapped about 300 students from a military-run college, with teachers and relatives, on Monday as they were travelling in mini-buses, police said.

The abduction took place while the Pakistani army pressed on with an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley in another part of the northwest.

Taliban fighters with hand grenades forced the students' convoy to a halt as it was travelling from the North Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border to the northwestern town of Bannu.

"The driver of one of the vehicles managed to escape and students reported to us that their colleagues have been kidnapped by Taliban," said Razaq Khan, a police official in Bakka Kheil village in the area.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSISL454193