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| 10 October 2004 | Sunday | 24 Shaban 1425 |
2 Chinese engineers kidnapped
WANA, Oct 9: Two Chinese engineers and their five security guards were kidnapped on Saturday while travelling through the South Waziristan Agency.
Sources said the Chinese, working on the Gomal Zam dam project in South Waziristan, were heading towards the site early morning from Dera Ismail Khan when the incident occurred.
The dam is being built near the tribal Tank town, some 283km southwest of Islamabad and on the border of South Waziristan.
The two were part of a batch of over 100 Chinese workers brought by the Sino Hydro Company which is building the multi-purpose dam.
"They left for work at around 6am and their kidnapping was reported at around 7:30am," an official said.
The sources said that the double-cabin pick-up (FJ 723) they were travelling in was later found abandoned on the Tor Mandi road in the Gardavei area of South Waziristan.
Gardavei is a disputed territory between the Mehsud and Wazir tribes.
The two engineers have been identified as Wang Teng and Wang Ende. A police constable, Asmatullah, and four tribal guards called Badraga in the local parlance, escorting the Chinese engineers were also kidnapped.
Authorities in the tribal region and the settled district of Tank later tried to pass on the responsibility to each other.
An official in Tank said that the engineers had crossed the Hatala checkpoint and entered the tribal area before they were kidnapped.
The kidnapping has raised security concerns that could also affect work on the dam in a region that has seen fierce fighting between security forces and
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2 Chinese engineers kidnapped
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foreign militants and their local sympathizers.
One report said that a group of five masked men armed with Kalashnikovs had waylaid the Chinese engineers.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the kidnapping, although officials insisted it was the handiwork of criminal gangs.
Secretary (Security) Fata Brigadier Mehmood Shah told Dawn in Peshawar that the political agent along with a contingent of paramilitary troops had been dispatched to the area to recover the engineers.
"They have been able to establish contact with the kidnappers and hopefully their release would be secured soon," Brigadier Shah said.
Brigadier Mushtaq Ahmad, General Manager, Projects (North), told Dawn by phone from Lahore that the administration officials were following the kidnappers and the distance between the two was barely 200 meters.
He said the kidnappers and the hostages were reported to be travelling on foot, walking through the difficult mountainous terrain.
He said the authorities were in touch with the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad and were keeping them abreast with the developments and that the families of the kidnapped engineers had also been informed.
According to local people, the area was a forbidding terrain and it was quite difficult to track anybody.
TRACKS FOUND: A police officer in Dera Ismail Khan, Habibur Rehman said a search party had found tracks from the abductors, who fled into the mountains after evading a chase, adds AFP.
"They are surrounded and we are talking to them through intermediaries in order to secure the release of the kidnapped people," he said.
It was not known whether the kidnappers had made any demands during the negotiations.
The abductors were in a mountain hideout near Jandola, a rural town 70km east of Wana, the agency headquarters.
Habibur Rehman said he was hopeful the episode would be brought to a 'happy end' soon.
Police believe local tribesmen were involved in the kidnapping but their motive was not yet known, but they did not rule out the possibility of involvement of foreign militants.
CHINA'S STATEMENT: China has urged Pakistan to do all it could to rescue the engineers and called upon Islamabad to beef up security for their co-workers in the country, adds Reuters.
Foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in a statement the engineers had been kidnapped by unidentified 'bandits'.
China urged Pakistan to "immediately adopt effective measures to find the whereabouts of the Chinese workers and spare no effort in their rescue," Mr Kong said and added: "The Chinese side requests the Pakistan side to further strengthen security work to protect the safety of Chinese workers and their project sites."
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