ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Three Afghans armed with pistols and hand grenades hijacked a school bus to Islamabad from the northwestern Pakistani town of Peshawar on Sunday, taking 73 schoolchildren and staff hostage, officials and witnesses said.
The masked gunmen, who later released all but 16 Pakistani schoolboys, said they wanted $5 million, officials said.
Earlier, the gunmen said they would free the boys, ages 12 to 14, only after food supplies were delivered to the beleaguered Afghan capital, Kabul.
"We want guarantees that food has reached and been distributed equally among the people of Kabul," one of the gunmen said, outlining their demands in an interview with a reporter of the British Broadcasting Corp.
"We are not enemies of the children, and when we are sure supplies have gone to Kabul we will release them," the gunman said.
