Pakistan Troops Storm Embassy, Free 6 Hostages

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan —  Army commandos stormed the Afghan Embassy late Monday, freeing five schoolboys and a teacher and killing three masked Afghan gunmen who had held them hostage for nearly 40 hours.

The kidnapers “had every intention of shooting us, but they . . . were killed before they could move,” one of the boys told state-run TV.

The kidnapers, carrying pistols and grenades, had demanded $5 million for themselves and 2,000 truckloads of food for Kabul, the Afghan capital, where heavy fighting between rival Islamic factions has led to severe food shortages.

The kidnapers said that they belonged to no faction but that they wanted to draw world attention to the suffering of Kabul’s people.

The raid on the embassy, a white, two-story house in a posh residential section of Islamabad, began with a loud explosion aimed at stunning or distracting the kidnapers. About 10 commandos then rushed in and fired furiously for about 15 seconds, killing the three young kidnapers.

No one else was hurt, said Interior Secretary Jamshed Burkhi.

“It was a miraculous escape. It was God who saved us,” said Shafiq Rehman, the 70-year-old teacher who was rescued.

The incident began Sunday when the gunmen hijacked a busload of boys and teachers from Peshawar, 120 miles away, and drove them to Islamabad.

They freed six teachers and 55 schoolboys Sunday and eight more students earlier Monday.

The kidnapers became increasingly exhausted and jittery as the standoff wore on, said Afghan Ambassador Mohammed Roshan Khan. One demanded sleeping pills.

Another demand by the gunmen was that Pakistan reopen its border to Afghan refugees. Pakistan, home to 1.5 million Afghan refugees, closed the border last month after battles erupted in Kabul on Jan. 1.

The Pakistanis refused to pay any money but indicated they would negotiate on other issues. The interior minister offered the gunmen safe passage home if they freed the hostages.

Government officials, police and military officers traipsed in and out of the embassy Monday, but negotiations deadlocked.

Zahid Saeed of Pakistan’s Foreign Service, one of the negotiators, confided at one point: “They are terrorists. These demands are irrational, and they are only after money.”

Pakistani officials involved in the negotiations said the boys, ages 10 to 15, were kept in one large room and that for most of the time, the atmosphere was relaxed.

The boys could move around, and they watched TV as well as videos brought in for them. Meals were also taken into the embassy regularly.