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Militants set deadline for Chinese hostage
Islamic militants holding two Chinese engineers hostage in Pakistan have threatened to kill one of them at 0700 GMT unless security forces end a siege of their hideout, a Pakistani government official said on Monday. "There is a deadline of 12 o'clock (0700 GMT) but we have asked the tribe to ensure their safety," said a senior Pakistani security official, who asked not to be identified. "I am quite confident that the deadline will pass without any eventuality." Earlier a correspondent for Arabic al Jazeera television said a deadline of 0600 GMT had been set by the leader of the kidnappers, Abdullah Mehsud, who spoke to him about the group's demands in a telephone call. However, Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, who said he spoke to Mehsud in the morning, also said a deadline of noon Pakistan time (0700 GMT) had been set. "He gave a deadline of 12 o'clock or else one Chinese will be killed," he said. "He said safe passage be given to five kidnappers, two Chinese and the two Pakistani captives." Chinese diplomats have identified the engineers as Wang Ende and Wang Teng, who worked on Pakistan's Gomal Zam Dam project for China's Sino Hydro Corp. Pakistani officials said the engineers were kidnapped with one or two Pakistani security men early on Saturday. The men were being held in South Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan where security forces have been battling al Qaeda-linked militants since March, said a member of the delegation that went to try to secure their release on Sunday. Pakistani officials said the kidnappers, who had explosives strapped to their bodies, were with their captives in an isolated mud-brick house in the Chagmalai area of South Waziristan, surrounded by tribesmen and security forces. The area is about 330 km (200 miles) southwest of Islamabad. Leader Freed from Guantanamo Pakistan officials said the kidnappers were taking orders from Mehsud, a former inmate of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, who now heads tribesmen fighting alongside al Qaeda fighters in South Waziristan. They said Abdullah was demanding an end to military operations in South Waziristan, in which hundreds have died since March, in return for freeing of the men. Abdullah, who is not with the kidnappers, spoke to a group of local journalists on Sunday in Spinkai Raghzai, an area near Chagmalai. He said the Chinese would not be safe until they and the kidnappers reached him. "Until they come to me, we cannot guarantee their safety," he said. Abdullah, who is in his 20s, was among 26 inmates freed from Guantanamo Bay in March after the Pentagon said they were no longer a threat to the United States and had no intelligence value. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said on Geo Television there were four kidnappers, three of whom appeared Afghan. He said they had links to al Qaeda and the local tribes and had demanded the release of comrades held by the military. China has urged Islamabad to do all it can to rescue the engineers and also called on it to increase security for their co-workers. In May, three Chinese technicians working on a deep sea port construction project were killed and nine wounded in a car bomb attack in the southern Pakistani city of Gawadar. The semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan has long been notorious for kidnappings, but it has also become a refuge for al-Qaeda linked militants, including Chechens, Uzbeks and Arabs, who have been protected by local tribesmen. US officials believe Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders may be hiding somewhere along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. |
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