PAKISTAN-CHINA/KIDNAP Chinese cyclist kidnapped in Pakistan freed after a year - official

Record ID: 142916

  • Title: PAKISTAN-CHINA/KIDNAP Chinese cyclist kidnapped in Pakistan freed after a year - official
  • Date: 23rd August 2015
  • Summary: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (AUGUST 23, 2015) (REUTERS) PUNJAB HOUSE, VENUE OF NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF PAKISTAN'S INTERIOR MINISTER, CHAUDHRY NISAR ALI KHAN, HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) PAKISTAN'S INTERIOR MINISTER, CHAUDHRY NISAR ALI KHAN, SAYING: "He was recovered from the northwest yesterday after an intelligence operation lasting more than a year. He was handed over to us late last night. Today, after a while, maybe in an hour and a half, we will hand him over to the Chinese Embassy." KHAN ADDRESSING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) PAKISTAN'S INTERIOR MINISTER, CHAUDHRY NISAR ALI KHAN, SAYING: "Our Chinese friends have lots of stakes in Pakistan. Thousands of their people are working here. Whenever they would visit here, from their president to prime minister, their minister and their ambassador, they would talk about this Chinese tourist, the Chinese cyclist." KHAN AND JOURNALISTS STANDING UP / END OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACZIRP5JYRHVSIQ4NJA1QIEBKW
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A Chinese tourist who was kidnapped in Pakistan by the Taliban more than a year ago has been freed, Pakistan's interior minister said on Sunday (August 23).
    "He was recovered from the northwest yesterday after an intelligence operation lasting more than a year. He was handed over to us late last night," Pakistan's interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a news conference.
    The Chinese man, who had been cycling through Pakistan, was abducted last May near the western city of Dera Ismail Khan.
    A senior Pakistani Taliban commander, Abdullah Bahar, told Reuters soon after the kidnapping that the man was in the Islamist militants' custody.
    Khan gave few details about the Chinese man's recovery other than saying it was the result of an intelligence operation and the culmination of more than a year of effort by the Pakistani government.
    He said the Chinese officials had been concerned about their national.
    "Our Chinese friends have lots of stakes in Pakistan. Thousands of their people are working here. Whenever they would visit here, from their president to prime minister, their minister and their ambassador would talk about this Chinese tourist, the Chinese cyclist," Khan said.
    Kidnappings are rising in Pakistan, although it is unusual for Chinese nationals to be targeted. Gunmen earlier in 2014 shot dead six guards protecting a Spanish round-the-world cyclist in a remote area of western Pakistan. He escaped unhurt.
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