A Pakistani boy, one of 30 kidnapped by the Taliban, has recounted his ordeal to the BBC, including a nine-hour dash for freedom from his captors.

Sixteen-year-old Abdullah told the BBC's Urdu language service he ran, hid and trekked across mountains often being pursued by Taliban fighters.

He was kidnapped along with around 30 other boys -- some as young as 10 -- at the beginning of September near the Bajaur Agency, one of several Federally Administrated Tribal Areas along Pakistan's northeastern border with Afghanistan.

The Taliban said they had kidnapped boys from the Mamund tribe because the tribe supported the government, the BBC said.

Abdullah escaped last week when one morning he and a friend went into a gorge to go to the toilet. They were out of sight of the Taliban so they started to run.

"After a while we saw three armed Taliban running after us but we took cover in the bushes and continued to move," he said. "The Taliban who were chasing us didn't fire their guns. We kept on running for maybe three hours."

Abdullah said that he and his friend avoided both Afghan and Pakistani army patrols and eventually reached their home village in the Mamund area of Pakistan after about nine hours of walking and running.

The Mamund are a Pashtun tribe who live in several of Pakistan's FATA agencies but also across the border in Afghanistan.

The 30 kidnapped boys, aged from 10 to 18 and part of a larger group in an outing for the day, either had wandered across the unmarked border area of Gharkhi into Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province or had been lured over, Pakistani authorities said after the boys went missing in September.

"These boys inadvertently crossed into Afghanistan while picnicking on the second day of Eid and were kidnapped by militants," said local administration official Syed Nasim.

Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim holy festival that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

At first 40 were seized but those aged under 12 were allowed to go home the following day, he said.

The rugged sparsely populated mountains hide many smugglers' favorite cross-border transportation trails. But the routes are also favored by Pakistani militants entering Afghanistan to fight the U.S.-led forces there.

Pakistani military offenses in Bajaur also have sent hundreds of families fleeing across the border into Afghanistan.

Several days after the kidnapping, a video was released reportedly by the Taliban holding the children that showed some of the boys standing around with several Taliban close behind them.

A note from the Taliban said they would be returned safely when Pakistani security forces stops incursions into Bajaur.

Pakistani authorities fear that some children kidnapped by the Taliban end up as willing, or unwilling, suicide bombers for the rebels.

Abdullah told the BBC that during more than 40 days of captivity he was held in a room at night and moved to a ravine by day but were generally well looked after.

He wasn't handcuffed or blindfolded and his clothes were laundered by the militants.

"They made us walk for an hour to a place we didn't know and divided us into three groups," Abdullah said. "Each group was kept at a separate place and armed Taliban would keep vigil day and night."

They were given dried bread and tea for breakfast and cold rice and kidney beans later in the day, with goat meat occasionally.

Details of the whereabouts of the remaining children in captivity are unknown.