Chinese engineer, five captors killed in operation
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
JANDOLA: After six tension-filled days, the hostage crisis, taking place in a desolate tribal hinterland near here in South Waziristan ended in bloodshed on Thursday with the death of one of the two Chinese hostages and the five kidnappers as a result of an operation by Pakistan Army commandoes.
Wang Ping, a young, recently-married Chinese engineer working on the Gomal Zam Dam project, sited in parts of South Waziristan tribal agency and Tank district, was killed in the operation, while his older, 49-year-old colleague, Wang Ende, was lucky to survive. Ping was the chief surveyor in the private Chinese company that had brought more than 80 persons from China to work on the project.
Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, told The News that the kidnappers shot dead the Chinese hostage, prompting the Army sharpshooters to kill the five kidnappers and rescue the second Chinese engineer.
Maj-Gen Niaz Khattak, who led the military action from his base here in the Frontier Corps Fort in Jandola, argued that the kidnappers forced his hand by killing one of the Chinese hostages. "We didn’t fire first. We had waited patiently for six days and had employed every method keeping in view the tribal and Islamic traditions to seek the safe release of the Chinese engineers," he argued in an interview with The News. He was full of praise for the troops, including the commandoes, who managed to kill the heavily armed and determined kidnappers within no time. "Such operations are always risky, more so in situations when the kidnappers have explosives strapped to their bodies and also to their captives. Still we managed to save one of the Chinese hostages," he said.
Maj-Gen Khattak didn’t agree with the observation that the Chinese hostage might have been killed in the cross firing once the soldiers launched the rescue mission. He said he wasn’t aware whether the kidnappers fired at the military sharpshooters, who had stormed their hideout. He added that he was unable to say as to why the kidnappers failed to proceed with their threat to blow themselves and their captives at the hint of the slightest danger.
The commando action near Chakmalay village took place just before noon after a tense morning during which the government made one last effort to seek release of the Chinese hostages. Close relations of Abdullah Mahsud, commander of the tribal militants operating in the area inhabited by the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan, were sent to make him change his mind after the failure of all previous mediation missions.
However, the 29-year Mahsud told his brother-in-law Col (Retd) Yaqoob Mahsud, and his cousins and close relations Malik Rahman Gul, Maj (Retd) Murad and Alamzeb Khan that there was no way he would order the release of the Chinese hostages. He demanded of the government to allow a safe passage to the kidnappers along with the Chinese hostages. "Once the Chinese engineers reach me, I would guarantee their safety and start negotiations with the authorities on the terms of their release," he kept telling his relations and a group of 10 journalists who had waited on him in his hideout in the Spinkai Raghzai area close to Jandola.
Mahsud, who spent 25 months in captivity at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay after his capture alongside Taliban fighters in December 2001, spoke every few minutes on the wireless with the kidnappers in the morning and gave them orders to be ready for sacrificing their lives. Around 10 am, he gave orders for the release of policeman Asmatullah Gandapur, who had been kidnapped along with the Chinese engineers while serving as their guard on way to the Gomal Zam Dam site from their company’s camp at Hathala on the Dera Ismail Khan-Tank road. Asmatullah walked free after spending six days as a captive and serving as an interpreter for the Chinese hostages and the kidnappers. He was later flown in the military helicopters that ferried the bodies of the five kidnappers and the Chinese engineer Wang Ping, along with the rescued engineer Wang Ende, to Peshawar, apparently to identify the bodies of the slain men.
By 11 am, commander Mahsud agreed to free Pakistan Army Sepoy Mohammad Shaban, who was captured during an ambush by the tribal militants near Sarwekai in South Waziristan on September 14, and deliver him to a group of visiting mediamen. He said he was fulfilling his promise to hand over the captured soldier to journalists.
Shaban, wearing his military uniform, was brought to the hill from where Mahsud was communicating with the kidnapper, embraced by the militants milling around and delivered to the mediamen. The bearded Shaban, carrying his few belongings, said he had been treated well by his captors. There were shouts of congratulations when Shaban was driven into the fort in Jandola and was able to rejoin his army comrades.
Mahsud also arranged for the journalists to speak on his wireless set with the kidnappers and their Chinese hostages. Ping, speaking in his broken English, began his conversation with Assalam-o-Alaikum and told this scribe that he wanted to appeal to all concerned to save their lives. He said he was opposed to a military action that risked his and his colleague’s life. He said the last six days had been really tough because they had to survive in the cold mostly in the open and face the prospect of being blown up by explosives. Ping and Ende also recorded their messages to their government and loved ones in the Chinese language. Barely half an hour later, Ping was dead and Ende had to undergo an ordeal that he cannot forget for rest of his life.
One of the kidnappers, codenamed Khadim, also spoke with the journalists on the wireless and declared in unequivocal terms that he and his four colleagues would obey the command of commander Mahsud and blow themselves up. " We knew about the consequences when we embarked on this dangerous mission," he said in Pashto. It was at this stage that commander Mahsud asked them to seek forgiveness," he told them in his parting message.
Around 11:30 am, one heard firing in the distance from where Mahsud and the journalists were standing overlooking Chakmalay, where the hostage drama was being played out. Bits of information collected by this correspondent pointed toward a disciplined and coordinated commando raid in which the Army sharpshooters dressed in plainclothes and wearing tribal turbans took up positions near the hill, where the kidnappers were holding the two unfortunate Chinese. Up to 250 soldiers led by the commandoes took part in the operation after being driven to the place of action at 10 am and returning to the Jandola fort by 1 pm. The tribesmen from the Jalalkhel Mahsud subtribe were also waiting at some distance from the hostage-takers although their elders had given up by Wednesday after failing to convince the kidnappers to release the Chinese hostages. The Jalalkhels had even tried the tribal custom of "Nanawatay", sending elders and a woman and sheep, along with a copy of the holy Quran to seek mercy of the kidnappers.
The action was all over in a few minutes and the troops reportedly recovered five AK-47 (Kalashnikov) rifles, one rocket-launcher and four rockets, four hand grenades, and 17 magazines of bullets from the persons of the kidnappers. Two Pakistani identity cards were also recovered but the names of the hostage-takers couldn’t be obtained. Civil and military officers had insisted all long that three of the kidnappers were non-Pakistanis, possibly Afghans. However, commander Mahsud insisted that all five were Pakistanis.
Security was now being tightened and steps were underway to protect government assets. There has been no reaction yet to the killing of the five kidnappers by the militants. However, it was clear that the militants are preparing for a long haul.
Meanwhile, four armed men snatched a Wapda vehicle at Oucha Khwara in Srarogha tehsil in the Mahsud tribal territory after tying up the driver and throwing him by the roadside. It isn’t known as to who else was in the vehicle when it was taken.
Agencies add: Giving his version of the operation, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said security forces attacked the building after shots were heard from inside. "This raised fears that the kidnappers had started violence against the Chinese," he told The Associated Press. "The security forces then stormed and killed all five kidnappers and freed the Chinese."
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said one of the Chinese, Wang Peng, had died and his body was being taken to Islamabad. He said the kidnappers had shot him. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said the surviving Chinese man, Wang Ende, had been taken to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad. Army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told AP that they attacked the kidnappers "only after Mehsud and his men refused to release" the Chinese.
He said the bodies of the hostage-takers were being sent to a military base to confirm their identity and nationality. Two were believed to be foreigners, he said. "The Chinese government strongly condemns this terrorist act of kidnapping Chinese citizens," China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in a statement that extended "deep sympathy" to the family of the dead man.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said Kasuri told ambassador Zhang Chunxiang he felt sorry for the failure of the operation, but Zhang told reporters Pakistan had tried its best: "I want to tell you this will have no effect on our relations." |
