China calls on Pak to better protect Chinese

Beijing, June 27: China has asked Pakistan to better safeguard Chinese people and businesses after workers at a Chinese massage centre in Islamabad were abducted by religious students on a crusade against vice, the Xinhua news agency said.

''We hope Pakistan will look into the terrorist attacks aiming at Chinese people and organisations as soon as possible and severely punish the criminals,'' Chinese Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang Zhou told Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao during his visit to Beijing yesterday.

Islamist students associated with Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, on Saturday kidnapped seven Chinese and two Pakistanis from the centre.

They released the Chinese, a couple and their five female employees, after about 17 hours.

Zhou acknowledged the Pakistani government's support in getting the kidnapped Chinese released, but asked for more active measures to ensure security of Chinese and Chinese property.

Sherpao pledged Pakistan would ''take more rigorous actions,'' Xinhua said.

China is a close ally of Pakistan, and Islamabad is an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which unites China, Russia and four Central Asian states against terrorism, separatism, extremism, cross-border crime and drug-trafficking.

At their meeting, Zhou and Sherpao agreed the Chinese Ministry of Public Security would offer assistance of police equipment to Pakistan, Xinhua said.

''China would like to work more closely with Pakistan on fields such as law enforcement and counter-terrorism,'' Zhou said.

Reuters>