Islamabad - Pro-Taliban militants threatened Friday to start executing 27 law enforcers they seized a day ago in Pakistan's North- West Frontier Province (NWFP) if the government did not free their colleagues in police custody.

Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar said among the captured security personnel were 12 soldiers from Pakistan Army, eight paramilitary troops from Frontier corps, and seven belonged to the police force.

"If the government does not release our people, stop the operation in Hangu district, and restore the telephone connections in the area by tomorrow, we will start killing security personnel one by one," he was quoted as saying by English-language Dawn news channel.

Hundreds of heavily-armed Taliban besieged a police station in Hangu on Wednesday after police arrested their seven comrades.

When the government dispatched some 700 regular army troops to the area, rebels ended the siege early Thursday. But they captured 27 security personnel before the retreat.

This led to an operation in the area under which the security forces have detained dozens of suspected Taliban and their supporters.

The Pakistani government, however, refused to accept the militants' demands.

"We will not bow to any threat from the miscreants. No insurgent will be released and the operation will continue," Interior Ministry's top official Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad.

The militants are loyal to Baitullah Mehusd, a top Taliban commander based in South Waziristan. His group has sanctuaries for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters launching cross-border attacks on NATO- led international forces in Afghanistan. (dpa)