Pakistani police have announced that armed terrorist elements have kidnapped 17 government employees in the Qabul Khel area, on the border between Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, while they were travelling in a bus that was later set on fire by the militants.

Eight of the abductees have been found, three of them injured, police said in a statement on Friday, adding that the search for the remaining kidnappers was continuing. According to local media reports, the abducted workers belonged to Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission and were involved in uranium mining in the area.