Pakistani tribal leader spares Chinese hostages from execution

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2004

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A Pakistani tribal leader linked to Al-Qaeda agreed to negotiate over the fate of two Chinese hostages after allowing a deadline for a threatened execution to pass.

Abdullah Mahsud, who is holding the two Chinese engineers in a wild tribal region of Pakistan 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...