Peshawar, Jan. 28 (Agencies): Gunmen released unharmed dozens of students and teachers they had taken hostage at a school in northwestern Pakistan today, the government said.

The six gunmen, who had barged into the school near the town of Bannu after a chase and shootout with the police, gave themselves up to a jirga or a council of tribal elders after a five-hour standoff, interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.

“All the children have been released and the criminals have surrendered to the jirga,” Cheema said, adding that none of the children were hurt.

One of the negotiators, former lawmaker Shar Abdul Aziz, said that in return for releasing the captives and giving up their weapons, the gunmen were given safe passage and had since left for an unknown destination. Local police declined to comment on that report.

The police chase began after the gunmen abducted the health chief of neighbouring Karak district and two of his relatives, who were later freed unharmed.

A seventh gunman died in a subsequent shootout, while a policeman was wounded.

“It was incidental that those criminals entered the school,” President Pervez Musharraf told a news conference during a visit to London. “It has been resolved peacefully.”

Aziz said the gunmen had threatened to kill the children, teachers and themselves if anyone attacked them, so negotiations were held to end the standoff without further bloodshed.

There were conflicting reports on the number of children and teachers who had been held inside the school. Aziz said there were 315 children and 10 teachers, but local police chief Hamza Mehsud said there had in fact only been 25 children and seven teachers detained inside a single classroom. However, the interior minister, Hamid Nawaz, said there were between 200 and 250 children in the school.

Cheema described the gunmen as “criminals” rather than Islamic militants. Bannu lies near the volatile tribal region of North Waziristan, a stronghold of Taliban militants near the Afghan border.

Cheema could not immediately be reached for comment on Aziz’s report that the gunmen had been set free. Earlier, he said they were being held by the tribal mediators who were negotiating with police and the local government.

One soldier has been killed and nine wounded in renewed fighting in South Waziristan today, the military said.

In neighbouring North Waziristan, two soldiers were killed in a militant attack on a checkpost, while three policemen were killed in another attack in the Orakzai tribal region last night, intelligence officials said.

US diplomat dead

Authorities found the body of a US diplomat with a bullet wound in his head at his home in Islamabad today and were investigating a suspected case of suicide, police and the interior minister said.

The US embassy named the dead man as 37-year-old Keith Ryan, an immigration and customs enforcement attache from the department of homeland security. “There will be a full investigation,” the embassy said.