CHAGMALAI, Pakistan — Pakistani special forces attacked kidnappers holding two Chinese engineers near the Afghan border yesterday, killing all five of the al Qaeda-linked militants, who were followers of a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. One of the hostages was killed in the raid, while the other survived.
Security forces later launched a manhunt for the militants’ leader, Abdullah Mehsud, who was believed to be hiding in mountains while his men held the hostages for six days in the nearby village of Chagmalai, officials said.
Commandos raided a house where the militants were holding the hostages after shots were heard coming from inside, Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed said.
“This raised fears that the kidnappers had started violence against the Chinese,” he said. “The security forces then stormed and killed all five kidnappers and freed the Chinese.”
Resident Abid Mehsud, however, said dozens of special forces soldiers, disguised as local tribesmen, surrounded the mud-brick house and opened fire when three of the kidnappers came outside to talk on a two-way radio.
The troops then lobbed a tear-gas grenade into the house, and one of the Chinese hostages ran and made it out safely. The two surviving militants then emerged, holding the other Chinese man in front of them.
“The troops fired at them and they all fell to the ground,” said Mr. Mehsud, who is not related to the captors’ leader. He added that it was not clear whether the soldiers’ fire had killed the hostage, or whether the militants had shot him.
Mr. Ahmed said the kidnappers had shot the Chinese man, Wang Peng.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said the survivor, Wang Ende, was taken to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad.
Mehsud, 28, returned to Pakistan in March after about two years’ detention at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Pakistani officials say he has forged ties with al Qaeda since then.
It was not clear why U.S. authorities released Mehsud, who has used an artificial leg since losing one to a land mine while fighting for the Taliban. He became a rebel leader when he returned to South Waziristan, and has opposed Pakistani forces that are hunting al Qaeda fighters in the semiautonomous area.
The raid came after two rounds of talks between tribal elders and Mehsud collapsed.
The Chinese were abducted Saturday, along with their Pakistani driver and security guard. The militants freed the Pakistanis an hour before yesterday’s attack.
The engineers were among dozens of Chinese who have been working for a Chinese state-owned company at the Gomal Zam dam, about 210 miles southwest of Islamabad.
The kidnappers initially told the government they wanted to trade the hostages for foreign militants captured by the army during a recent military operation against al Qaeda fighters in South Waziristan.
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