ISLAMABAD, 7 January 2005 — Pakistan stepped up security yesterday for Chinese engineers working at a gas project after angry tribesmen demanding jobs and health care besieged the area, an official said.

Some 40 personnel from the border military police and a local force were guarding six Chinese engineers and Pakistani staff at the site in central Pakistan, local administrator Syed Imtiaz Shah was quoted as saying by AFP.

The tribesmen had erected roadblocks to stop food and other supplies reaching the exploration project near the rural town of Taunsa Sharif, some 90 km southwest of Multan, he said.

Four Chinese workers died last year in terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Three Chinese workers were killed and 11 others wounded in May when a car bomb went off near the joint Pakistani-Chinese port construction project at Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

Five months later two Chinese engineers involved in a hydroelectric scheme in northwest Pakistan were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked tribesmen led by a former Guantanamo Bay inmate. One hostage died during a rescue bid.

The latest incident happened after members of the Qaisrani tribe pressed the government to give them jobs and health facilities, Shah said. “We have accepted the demands of Qaisrani tribe ... but some miscreants were instigating them.”

A tribal elder said the government had found huge natural gas and oil reserves worth millions of dollars from his area, but the locals were living in abject poverty without basic facilities.

“We will continue our struggle, but have no intention of harming the Chinese engineers who are our guests,” said the tribal elder on condition of anonymity.

Gang Rapists Executed

Two men convicted of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl were hanged yesterday after losing a six-year legal battle against the death sentence, an official said.

The men, Mushtaq Ahmad and Amir Ali, were executed at the central jail in Bahawalpur, a superintendent at the prison told reporters by telephone.

They were convicted in May 1999, four months after they were arrested for gang-rape, but had appeals against their death sentences rejected by higher courts.

Five rapists were executed at the same prison in November and December.