Hardline Pakistani students release Chinese women

ISLAMABAD, June 23 (Reuters) Hardline Pakistani religious students kidnapped nine people, including six Chinese women, today and accused them of running a brothel.

The nine were released after several hours. ''The foreign women were involved in prostitution in a massage centre,'' the students said in a statement before their release.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a top cleric at Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, said the nine had been let go in the interests of friendship between Pakistan and China and after authorities had given assurances about stopping mixed-sex massage parlours.

The abductions were the most provocative action by the Taliban-supporting students associated with the Red Mosque in their self-styled anti-vice campaign.

China is Pakistan's most steadfast ally. The Pakistani government called the kidnappings from what it said was a health clinic ''shocking''.

Ghazi told Reuters seven of the nine, who were held at a religious school next to the Lal Masjid, were Chinese and two Pakistanis. Six of the Chinese were women, he said.

''We greatly respect Pakistan-China friendship but it doesn't mean that foreign women can come here and indulge in such vulgar activities,'' Ghazi said before their release. ''We had complaints that these women did massage for men but it was more than that.'' China's Xinhua news agency said Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao had telephoned China's ambassador to apologise and assure him the hostages would be speedily released.

Authorities have been confronting the clerics and students at the mosque for months. The radicals have threatened suicide bombings if force was used against them.

Trouble began in January when female students attached to the mosque occupied a library next to their school to protest against a campaign to remove mosques built illegally on state land.

''EXCEEDED ALL LIMITS'' In March, the students abducted three Pakistani women they accused of running a brothel and held them for several days before forcing them to confess and releasing them.

They have also abducted and briefly held policemen, and have warned video shops to stop selling Western films deemed obscene.

The students arrived in three vehicles in the middle of the night to raid what one Chinese newspaper said was an acupuncture centre in a house in a residential neighbourhood of the capital.

''In their unlawful activities over the past several months they have now exceeded all limits and are bent upon continuing their illegal campaign despite utmost patience and tolerance shown by the authorities,'' the Interior Ministry said.

The students had denied kidnapping and said they wanted to persuade the nine to give up their vulgar ways.

President Pervez Musharraf has said he felt humiliated by his inability to oust the radical clerics from their city-centre mosque.

They have about 5,000 followers at associated madrasas.

Fears of a backlash if any female students were hurt in an assault has stayed the government's hand, he said. Instead, the government, which is struggling with a judicial crisis that is sapping its popularity, has tried to mollify the Islamists.

Reuters AK GC1810