LADHA, Aug 15: Eight employees of the Gomal Zam Dam project were kidnapped from Murtaza Goth area along the border between the lawless South Waziristan and Tank district on Wednesday evening.

Sources said the project workers were on two pick-ups coming to Tank from the dam site in South Waziristan. When they reached Murtaza Goth near Gradawi, some 30km west of Tank, armed militants intercepted their pick-ups and kidnapped them along with the vehicles.

The sources said those kidnapped included an engineer, a sub-engineer, two drivers, a cook, two security personnel and a labourer.

Four of them were identified as Zeeshan, Murtaza, Mustaq and Zajaj.

The political administration and intelligence sources confirmed the incident.

Independent sources claimed that a few Chinese nationals were among the kidnapped people, but officials did not confirm this. No group has claimed responsibility for abduction.