Pakistani security forces and the kidnappers of two Chinese engineers Saturday night agreed on disengagement and they would resume negotiation on the release of the hostages Sunday, according to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad.
Zhang Yiming, an embassy spokesman, said in an interview with Xinhua that the two sides ended their four-hour long negotiation around 10:00 in the night (05:00GMT) and agreed to disengage each other and to entrust a tribal chieftain to guard the three hostages and five kidnappers separately.
They also agreed that the security forces and policemen who had been encircling the kidnappers would retreat hundreds of meters and both sides would not act further in the night, said Zhang.
Under their agreement, the chieftain would hold talks with Pakistani authorities on Sunday morning to find a peaceful solution to the incident.
Zhang also disclosed that the kidnappers had been identified as Afghan immigrants, but their motive to kidnap the Chinese was still not clear.
The two Chinese hostages, Wang Ende and Wang Peng, were in good condition, Kan Janping, boss of the two engineers, told Xinhua by telephone from the tribal area.
He added that the Chinese engineers were working on a water dam and a canal in the tribal area for China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Group Corporation.
On Saturday morning, two Chinese engineers and their security guard were kidnapped by five gunmen near Jandala in Pakistan's South Waziristan Tribal Agency bordering Afghanistan.
The kidnappers were soon surrounded by some 30 security forces when they were escaping in the direction of the Pak-Afghan border. And the Pakistani military sent six helicopters to join the rescue efforts.
Later, Malak Miraju Din, a National Assembly member from the tribal area, began on behalf of the Pakistani authorities to negotiate with the kidnappers on the hostages' release.
The kidnappers asked for a vehicle for their safe escape, in return they would set the hostages free. However, the security forces refused to accept this condition.