WANA, Pakistan • Around 100 Pakistani soldiers remained stranded in a remote tribal region near the Afghan border yesterday amid a dispute between Islamist militants and tribesmen, officials said.
The insurgents wanted to surround the military convoy, while tribesmen were trying to persuade them to let the troops return unharmed from South Waziristan, the army said.
"The troops have not been able to leave the area because there is a dispute between local tribesmen and militants who wanted to surround the soldiers," top military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP, adding the troops had wanted to avoid the use of force.
He denied reports they had been kidnapped.
Arshad said the poor weather conditions that forced the convoy to set up camp in the area were continuing, but the troops would leave once the tribal groups reached an agreement.
The soldiers were travelling from South Waziristan district to neighbouring North Waziristan when they lost contact with army headquarters, sparking fears they had been abducted by militants.
The border area is a known hub of Taleban and Al Qaeda-linked militants engaged in a bloody confrontation with tens of thousands of troops deployed in the region to hunt them down since 2002.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has been under pressure to crack down on militancy in the restive frontier region, where US officials say Al-Qaeda's leadership has regrouped.
Arshad said late Thursday the convoy was surrounded by local villagers who thought the soldiers were preparing to launch an attack, triggering a tense standoff, but that the soldiers were safe.
Concerns for the troops come after militants in South Waziristan on Tuesday released 19 Pakistani soldiers who were abducted earlier this month. One of those soldiers was beheaded on video by a teenage boy on August 14.
A series of deadly Islamist attacks have rocked Pakistan since the military's storming of the hardline Red Mosque in Islamabad last month. More than 100 people were killed in the raid on the pro-Taleban mosque.
Military officials said 60 soldiers and 250 militants had been killed in violence in little more than a month.
