ISLAMABAD, July 26: An Iraqi group holding two Pakistani nationals hostage threatened on Monday to kill them, but did not give a deadline.

The Government of Pakistan and families of the two hostages appealed for their release, saying they were innocent people who had nothing to do with international politics.

"They are innocent people, they should be released immediately," foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said. "They have nothing to do with international politics and they are migrant workers, we appeal to the captors to release them."

Al-Jazeera television broadcast a statement by the captors' group, calling itself 'Islamic Army in Iraq,' which said it was holding the two Pakistanis and threatened to execute them.

A video footage was shown of the Pakistanis' identity cards, which carried their photographs and named them as Azad Hussein Khan, 49, and Sajjad Naeem, 29. "One of the two Pakistanis works as a technician for the American forces and the second is a driver for these forces," said the group's statement, adding that after investigation, "it has been decided to execute the two Pakistanis."

"It was decided to execute them on the grounds of irrefutable proof (of their collaboration with the Americans) and because of statements by (Pakistani President) Pervez Musharraf on sending troops to Iraq," the group said.

It said an Iraqi, who was not identified, had also been taken captive. The Pakistan foreign office emphasized that Islamabad's policy on Iraq remained as before and no decision had been taken to send troops to the violence-torn country.

"Our policy on sending troops to Iraq remains unchanged and we have taken no decision in this regard," the spokesman said. He said Islamabad was in touch with the interim Iraqi government and 'all others' for safe and early release of the Pakistanis.

Last month a Pakistani driver, Amjad Hafeez, working with a Kuwait-based US company was taken hostage but his captors released him after a week in response to appeals by his family and the Pakistani government.

Mr Masood Khan said on Sunday that Azad Khan and Naeem Sajjad had been working for the Kuwait-based Al-Tamimi group of industries and went missing on July 23 while returning to Baghdad.

Relatives of the hostages in Pakistan tearfully implored the kidnappers to free their loved ones. They said they had gone abroad to earn a livelihood for their families and were in no way involved in Iraq's politics.

"We understand the difficulties of our Iraqi brothers," Sajjad Naeem's father told reporters in Islamabad. "My son went to Iraq for work. He has no political motives and he should be released in the name of Islam and humanity."

Naeem's mother said her son spoke to her last Friday and after that there had been no contact. "My son was the bread-earner for three families and they cannot survive without him," she said.

Both kidnap victims belong to poor families living in the Rawalakot area of Azad Kashmir, from where men routinely go to other parts of the country and abroad in search of employment.

Azad Khan's wife, Kausar Perveen, said Kashmiris were already an oppressed people and her husband went to Iraq to provide the basic necessities of life for his family. "He has no connection with any kind of politics, he is a simple man toiling away from his homeland to enable his family to live in these times of economic hardships," Ms Perveen, 40, said.

"We are terribly upset and my appeal to the captors is that they are Muslims and my husband is also a Muslim. In the name of our common religion they should let him free unharmed."

KILLINGS: Meanwhile, insurgents killed eight people in Iraq on Monday including a senior Interior Ministry official gunned down near his home, and two Jordanian drivers were the latest foreigners to be seized in a spiralling hostage crisis.