ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 22 (UPI) -- Students at an extremist religious school in Pakistan still held two police officers hostage Monday while demanding police release of three other classmates.
The Jami Fareedia students, associated with the Lal Masjid group, also briefly kidnapped three more officers but freed them after talking with senior police officials backed by heavily armed troops, the Pakistani news agency Dawn reported.
A student leader, Maulana Ghazi, told Dawn he agreed to release the three officers "as a goodwill gesture and not out of fear." He said the two officers held since last Friday would only be released when the government freed three students of the religious school, or madressah, arrested last month for disturbing the peace.
But local administrators responded by extending the three students' detention for another month and blocking their release on bail.
Local authorities also have registered cases against 41 Lal Masjid militants detained until Sunday and plan to do the same with more than 50 more men picked up throughout the city Monday.
