Seven Chinese hostages abducted and later freed in Islamabad were running a legal business, the government said on Tuesday, while refusing to comment on allegations they were involved in prostitution. "The seven Chinese citizens had legal licences in Pakistan and had all received the proper business licences," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
Upon freeing the abducted, 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.
Qin did not comment directly when asked about the prostitution allegations. "The Chinese government has all along requested its citizens to abide by the laws of other countries or the local areas they visit," Qin said.
Before their release, China's foreign ministry raised diplomatic representations with the government and demanded the hostages be freed. Although the hostage crisis was widely reported in the Chinese press, the state-controlled media did not mention the accusations that the abducted Chinese were accused of running a brothel.
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