The boys had either inadvertently wandered across the unmarked border or had been lured over according to reports and were then seized by fugitive militants.
Intelligence officials said the captors were apparently allied with Maulvi Faqir Mohammad the Taliban commander who led insurgents in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency until fleeing to Afghanistan last year.
The 10 to 18-year-olds crossed from the Gharkhi area of Bajaur into Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province on Thursday.
At first 40 were seized, but those aged under 12 were allowed home the following day.
“These boys inadvertently crossed into Afghanistan while picnicking on the second day of Eid and were kidnapped by militants,” said senior local administration official Syed Nasim.
The kidnappers’ demands were unknown and elders from the boys’ villages were trying to negotiate their return. Militants often target people from tribes who oppose them.
Afghan police officials said they were unaware of the kidnap. Kunar has a porous border with Pakistan, which is crisscrossed by smuggling trails through forested mountains. The Kabul government has little grip on the province outside a handful of towns.
Pakistan has blamed Faqir Mohammad for coordinating an attack on a paramilitary post last week, which killed 25 troops.
His group regrouped in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan with Afghan support after their expulsion from Pakistan, officals claimed.
The eastern border has become a flashpoint between the two countries, with Afghan officials alleging hundreds of rockets, mortars and artillery shells have been fired into Afghan villages since May.
Pakistan’s military has said only a few stray rounds may have crossed the border and complained that villages on its side have been the victim of Afghan-based Taliban violence.
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