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