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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Tribesmen fail to free Chinese hostages |
| 2004-10-13 |
| A delegation of tribesmen has met the head of a group of al Qaeda-linked militants holding two Chinese engineers hostage in Pakistan, but failed to secure their release, a member of the delegation says. In the Tuesday night talks, kidnap leader Abdullah Mehsud offered to free one of two Pakistanis held with engineers Wang Ende and Wang Peng since Saturday in the remote South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. But Abdullah, in a separate location from the kidnappers, insisted he would not order the freeing of the Chinese until his demands were met, a source, who did not want to be identified, said on Wednesday. "He did not spell out the demands, but repeated a demand for safe passage for both captors and the captives to join him." A council of the same Mehsud tribe to which Abdullah belongs and which dispatched the delegation was meeting in the town of Tank near South Waziristan to consider its response, he said. Pakistani officials have said Abdullah has demanded an end to military operations in the semi-autonomous tribal region, where hundreds have died this year in battles between troops and al Qaeda-linked militants, and the freeing of two Uzbek militants. Mehmood Shah, the head of security in the tribal region, said on Tuesday the government hoped for a peaceful solution to the crisis but warned that use of force could not be ruled out. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |