A tribal leader agreed to negotiate over the fate of two Chinese hostages on Monday after allowing a deadline for a threatened execution to pass. Abdullah Mahsud, who is holding the two Chinese engineers in a wild tribal region near the Afghan border, said he had ignored his own 1100 GMT deadline to kill one of the hostages because negotiations were under way.
"The deadline has finished, but as the negotiations have started we are waiting a response from the government," Mahsud told reporters at an undisclosed location.
"The ball is now in the government's court, my fighters are ready and can kill the hostages any time." Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said the hostage-takers had strapped explosives to themselves and the engineers, who were abducted to press Pakistan to release two detained militants.
Mahsud then threatened to kill one of the hostages unless his group were allowed to flee their base, which is surrounded by government security forces backed by members of the Jalakhel tribe, along with their captives.
Chief negotiator Maulana Merajuddin, a local MP and religious leader said he saw the Chinese hostages alive at 5:00 pm (1200 GMT), an hour after the deadline set by Mahsud.
"I have told the abductors not to show haste as it will have serious repercussions for the people of the area," Merajuddin told AFP.
He said the government had agreed to let the militants escape the base in the Jandoola area, 75 kilometers (46.5 miles) from the Afghan border and close to the hydroelectric dam the Chinese engineers were working on, if they left the hostages behind.
Meanwhile, tribal elders decided at a traditional assembly to meet Abdullah Mahsud to press him to release the pair.
Comments
Comments are closed.