China omits brothel claims from Pakistan hostage reporting
Posted: 24 June 2007 1243 hrs

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BEIJING: China's state media reported Sunday the release of seven Chinese hostages briefly kidnapped in Pakistan, but failed to mention that they were seized from an alleged brothel.

All major dailies reported that students from a radical mosque in Islamabad had released seven Chinese - six women and one man - and two Pakistanis after abducting them from an acupuncture clinic in the early hours of Saturday.

The students from the Red Mosque and Jamia Hafsa female seminary said the clinic was in fact a brothel, and that the raid was part of an anti-vice campaign - a fact absent from the Chinese reports on the incident.

The seven were taken to the Chinese embassy in Islamabad after being released, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said late Saturday.

The ministry was not immediately available to comment on the case, or to confirm whether or not the Chinese man and seven women were engaging in illicit sexual activities. - AFP/yy