Abducted Chinese cyclist recovered: Nisar

Pakistani intelligence agencies have rescued a Chinese tourist kidnapped previous year in an area close to insurgency-prone regions, it was announced Sunday. “Today, after a while, maybe after one or one-and-a-half hours, we will hand him over to the Chinese embassy”, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters.

But Khan did not disclose from where and under what circumstances the tourist was rescued.

A video released in May 2015 showed a man identified as Hong asking the Chinese government to honor his kidnappers’ unspecified ransom demands.

He said the Chinese authorities had been anxious about their national.

Hong, from central China’s Hubei province, was abducted in the Dera Ismail Khan district of northwestern Pakistan on May 19, 2014 when traveling in the country by bicycle.

He had reportedly cycled across Pakistan after traversing Tibet, Nepal and north India.

The Taliban in Pakistan has kidnapped a number of foreigners and wealthy Pakistanis over the years to fund their activities, but it is unusual for Chinese to be targeted.

A senior Pakistani commander, , told Reuters soon after the kidnapping that the man was in the Islamist militants’ custody.

There are more than 10,000 Chinese citizens working in Pakistan on Chinese-funded energy and infrastructure projects.