Source: New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen seized control of a school in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, taking more than 200 schoolchildren hostage before surrendering to local elders, according to a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema.

All the children were released from the primary school in the Bannu district in the northwest of the country, according to Brigadier Cheema. The gunmen remained in the custody of the elders, who were negotiating with the local police, he said.

However, there still seemed to be some uncertainty surrounding the siege and The Associated Press quoted a local police official, Hamza Mehsud, as saying after the children were freed that only 25 children and seven teachers had been detained inside a single classroom in the school.

The group of eight gunmen, which the Interior Ministry described as “criminals,” had earlier kidnapped a local health official for ransom. As they fled, they engaged in a firefight with the local police when one of the gunmen was killed.

The remaining seven gunmen took control of the nearby school, before the police and security forces surrounded the school, and the gunmen decided to surrender to the delegation of local elders, or jirga.

The Interior Ministry said the gunmen had been involved in hostage-taking in the past.

In Islamabad, an American diplomat was found dead, and suicide was suspected, Pakistani and Western officials said.

The United States Embassy identified the diplomat as 37-year-old Keith Ryan, an immigration and customs enforcement attache from the Department of Homeland Security, according to a statement released Monday evening. Pakistani authorities found Mr. Ryan’s body with a bullet wound in his head at his home in an upscale neighborhood in Islamabad.

“Mr. Ryan was a well respected, trusted, and longtime member of the U.S. Mission in Pakistan,” the embassy statement said. “His death is a great loss. He will be sorely missed by all who have known and worked with him here in Pakistan.”

The statement added: “There will be a full investigation; however, there does not appear to have been any foul play.”

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Tags: Bannu, Hostage, Militants, School seige, Surrender