11 October 2004	Monday	25 Shaban 1425

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PESHAWAR, Oct 10: The kidnappers of the two Chinese engineers and their two Pakistani escorts have threatened to blow themselves up along with the hostages if attacked, sources told Dawn on Sunday.

"The kidnappers have explosives strapped to their bodies and have grenades in their hands. They say they would blow themselves up along with their four hostages if security forces or the tribe itself made any attempt to snatch the captives," a highly-placed official source told Dawn.

The kidnappers, said the source, had been offered a safe passage if they let the two Chinese engineers go. "They have turned down the offer. They are not interested in it. They say that their safe passage leads only to heaven," the official said.

"They seem to be a in a dangerous mood and we are not taking any chances," the official said, adding the government had various options including the use of force but was showing restraint to avoid any harm to the hostages.

Five militants, three of them believed to be foreigners, kidnapped the two engineers, a police constable and their driver, from Tor Mandi in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday.

The two Chinese, an engineer and a surveyor, are part of a large batch of over 100 personnel of the Sino Hydro Company building a dam at Gomal Zam in South Waziristan.

Regional administration officials accompanied by a contingent of paramilitary troops chased the militants and cornered them in an isolated small mud-house alongside a dry stream in Chag Malai, about half an hour drive from Jandola.

The official said that the kidnappers had not made any demands and asked a tribal mediation committee to talk to their commander, Abdullah Mehsud, instead. The 21-member committee sent to there negotiate with the captors returned empty-handed.

"There has been no breakthrough. It is status quo," acknowledged one official. He denied that the captors or their commander, a former Guantanamo prisoner, had made any demand.

"There has been no demand," the official insisted, contradicting a statement by the interior minister that the kidnappers had demanded release of their comrades in government's custody.

A member of the committee who held negotiations with the kidnappers in Chag Malai also said that the militants had made no demands. "We spoke to two masked militants who had come out to talk to us. Although they spoke Pushto, their accent was distinctively southern Kandahari and that too sounded adopted," the tribal negotiator said.

"These guys are prepared to kill themselves and, therefore, were not interested in any offer of safe passage. They are on a suicide mission." He said that the Jalalkhel Mehsud tribe also could not intervene to avoid any harm coming to the hostages.

"The Jalalkhels are not letting them get away," the tribal source said. Security forces have laid siege to the area situated in the midst of what is known as Black Mountains. "There is no way they can get out," the tribal negotiator said.

The official source said that the government was now sending a larger Mehsud tribal jirga on Monday to negotiate with Commander Abdullah Mehsud and secure the release of the engineers.

Dilawar Khan Wazir adds from Wana: Abdullah Mehsud has accepted the responsibility of kidnapping the two Chinese engineers and said any talk of making demands was premature.

"I will make demands only when they get to me," Abdullah told a group of journalists at a place not very far from where the Chinese were being held. He warned that any attempt by the government to rescue the Chinese could risk their lives. "I cannot guarantee their safety," he warned.

Acknowledging that the incident could undermine relations between Pakistan and China, Abdullah said his fighters had been forced to resort to such an action because of what he called the killing of innocent children by Pakistani forces at the behest of the United States.

Surrounded by dozens of heavily-armed fighters, Abdullah said he was not happy to kidnap the Chinese. "We have been forced to (kidnap)," he said. The tribal militant offered to hand over the Pakistan army driver to the journalists but they did not accept the offer. "We have been instructed by the authorities that we are not there to seek release of the army driver," the journalists responded.

CHINESE EMBASSY: The two Chinese engineers kidnapped in Pakistan have been transferred to the custody of tribal elders and negotiations are under way for their release, a Chinese embassy official said on Sunday, adds Reuters.

The embassy spokesman, Mr Zhang Yiming, said the engineers and the kidnappers were now with tribal elders in South Waziristan. "According to my information, the guys are safe and they are in a separate room from the kidnappers. But they have yet to be released, although we do hope for that," he said.

"Negotiations are still going on. But personally I think it's a very positive indication." Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of Pakistan's Crisis Management Centre, said the men were still being held, but added: "We do expect they will be released anytime today."