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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (47019)	10/10/2004 7:42:39 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Militant Abdullah Mehsud on Sunday claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers and he threatened to kill them if the government did not release the militants arrested by security forces. “My warriors have kidnapped the two Chinese engineers,” Abdullah Mehsud told Daily Times on the phone from an undisclosed location near Jandola, 65 kilometres east of Wana. He, however, warned security forces against attempting to rescue the hostages, saying it would bring harm to them. “The kidnappers have demanded the release of all foreign militants in government custody,” said an intelligence official who asked not to be named. He said the captors had given the government only a day to fulfil their demand. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said the kidnappers had not yet given a list indicating who they wanted released. “We will decide when we are given the list,” he told a private TV channel on Sunday. The minister suspected Al Qaeda’s hand in the kidnapping. NWFP Home Secretary Abdul Karim Qasuriya said a Mehsud jirga led by MMA MNA Maulana Mirajuddin was negotiating with the kidnappers. “The jirga expects a peaceful resolution to the crisis,” the home secretary said. But FATA security chief Brig (r) Mehmood Shah admitted that the talks had not yielded positive results. “There is no change in the situation,” he said. Govt negotiating safe release: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the captors had demanded the release of two militants in exchange for the two kidnapped Chinese engineers. “The government is negotiating the safe release of the Chinese engineers and has asked the Mehsud tribe to negotiate with the kidnappers,” Sheikh Rashid said. He said the government had asked the kidnappers to send details of the two militants whom they wanted to be released. He said the engineers were safe and in custody of the Jalalkhel tribe. Chinese embassy: Two engineers have been transferred to the custody of tribal elders and negotiations are under way for their release, Reuters quoted a Chinese official. Chinese embassy spokesman Zhang Yiming said: “According to my information, the guys are safe and they are in a separate room.” A senior security official said the kidnappers had explosives strapped to their bodies and threatened to blow up themselves and their prisoners if the security forces tried to approach them. Three of the kidnappers appeared of Central Asian and the fourth an Afghan origin. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri assured his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing on the phone that government was doing all it could to secure the release of the engineers.