TANK, Pakistan, Oct 14 (AFP) - One of two Chinese hostages and their five kidnappers were killed Thursday in a rescue operation by army commandos in Pakistan's remote tribal area, while the second hostage was safe, security officials said.
"One is dead. Unfortunately he has succumbed to injuries. One is absolutely safe," Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
The operation was launched by the army's crack Special Services Group early Thursday as gunshots were heard from the mud-hut where the hostages were held, sparking fears they were being killed.
Several attempts to negotiate the release of the Chinese engineers, held since Saturday in the wild tribal district of South Waziristan, had failed.
"We did our best the save the lives of (the) Chinese," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told private GEO television.
"The government used political and administrative channels and the negotiations continued until Thursday morning. But tribal elders told us that the matter could not be resolved."
The two men were freed just after midday (0700 GMT) and all five kidnappers were killed, but one of the Chinese was seriously wounded by gunshots and died in the helicopter transporting them from the scene, Sultan said, blaming "gunfire from the miscreants."
China expressed deep sadness and regret over the killing but had taken note of Pakistan's efforts to save the engineers, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said.
"China regrets the death of the Chinese engineer in the course of the rescue operation in Pakistan," Li said during a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri.
"President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders have expressed their deep sadness and their condolences to the families of the victims," Li said in a statement on the ministry's website.
Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf expressed his grief over the killing of the hostage and assured Beijing the masterminds behind the abduction would be pursued and punished severely.
Musharraf conveyed his "sense of shock, indignation and heartfelt sorrow at the most horrifying episode of hostage taking involving two Chinese engineers", in a message to Chinese President Hu Jintao.
"I wish to assure your excellency that the masterminds behind this terrorist action will be pursued relentlessly and meted out the most severe punishment," it said.
The abductors took orders from am Al-Qaeda-linked militant leader of the hardcore Mahsud tribe, Abdullah Mahsud, who had been imprisoned until March at Guantanamo Bay for 25 months after he was captured fighting for the Taliban in northern Afghanistan in late 2001.
Mahsud who was giving orders from a separate hideout near Tank, a town just outside South Waziristan, 300 kilometers (186 miles) southwest of Islamabad, was still alive.
He had threatened to kill the Chinese unless the captors and their hostages were given safe passage and allowed to come to him.
The five abductors who were killed included three foreigners and two Pakistanis, an intelligence official said.
An intelligence official in northwest city Peshawar told AFP that the deceased Chinese "was killed during the shootout."
His body was flown to the military hospital at Rawalpindi near Pakistan's military headquarters.
The Chinese were abducted as they drove to a hydroelectric dam project near Jandola, 75 kilometers (46.5 miles) from the Afghan border in South Waziristan.
The region has been flooded by Al-Qaeda fighters and sympathisers, who have set up training camps and found sanctuary among the arch-conservative Pashtun tribes who share their Islamist fervour and fierce hatred of the United States.
Pakistan's army has been battling the Al-Qaeda men and their militant tribal supporters for most of this year, killing at least 150 militants and losing dozens of troops.
Mahsud, 29, filled the shoes of militant tribal leader Nek Mohammad who was killed in a precision missile strike by Pakistani forces in June after leading the bloody resistance to army operations to stamp out Al-Qaeda fighters.
Mahsud told AFP earlier this week that he wanted to force the government to pull troops out of the tribal area.
"We believe we can force the government to accept our demand to end the operations in the tribal territory, which are being conducted at the behest of the US," he said in a satellite phone interview.
"When repression crosses all limits, there is no choice for us but to take up arms."