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Search for missing Chinese begins

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-02 07:44

Police launched a search operation in northwest Pakistan Monday for two Chinese telecommunications engineers and two Pakistanis who went missing last week near the Afghan border.

Al Qaida- and Taliban-linked militants have targeted Chinese nationals in Pakistan's northwest in the past.

The Chinese, along with a Pakistani driver and guard, disappeared from Dir region, some 200 km northwest of Islamabad, on Friday when they were returning to a guest house after fixing a telecommunication tower there.

"We're trying our best but so far, we're absolutely clueless. The last time they were seen was near the tower on Friday evening. That's what we know," Fida Hassan Shah, senior police officer in the region, said.

"They even did not inform police about their movement which is necessary for security reasons."

Dir borders with Pakistan's tribal region of Bajaur and Swat Valley where security forces have launched military operations against pro-Taliban militants.

Shah said the engineers, working with telecom company China Mobile, had been based in the area for the last month.

"Anyone, criminals or militants, could have done this. No one actually saw them being picked up by someone nor has anyone claimed responsibility."

A Taliban spokesman in Swat Valley did not rule out that the Chinese might have been abducted by militants in Dir.

"You better ask local militants there," said spokesman Muslim Khan.

Two Chinese engineers working on a hydroelectric project were kidnapped by militants near South Waziristan tribal region in October 2004.

One hostage and a top militant commander were killed in a rescue operation.

Agencies