Rescued Chinese engineer Wang Ende in Peshawar. (AFP)

Islamabad, Oct. 14 (Reuters): A Chinese engineer held hostage by al Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan was killed today but his colleague rescued in a commando assault that killed their five kidnappers, officials said.

Chinese engineers Wang Ende and Wang Peng were heading to work on a dam project in the remote South Waziristan tribal region when they were kidnapped on Saturday by Uzbek and Pakistani militants led by a former Guantanamo Bay detainee.

Wang Peng, who had worked as a surveyor on the project, was critically hurt by gunfire from the kidnappers and later died, said Pakistani military spokesperson Major-General Shaukat Sultan. Wang Ende was unharmed. Both men worked for state-run Chinese firm Sino Hydro Corp.

The assault was carried out by commandos disguised as a tribal delegation, one of whom was seriously wounded, Pakistani security sources said. It was launched after a shot was heard from the compound where the hostages were held, Sultan said.

?The security forces heard firing from within the compound, which created a fear that the abductors had used violence against the Chinese engineers,? he said. ?Then immediately the security forces stormed the compound and killed all the five abductors.?

Two Pakistanis held with the engineers were freed unharmed, Sultan said.

Pakistani foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said Pakistan shared China?s grief and the kidnappers had tried to drive a wedge between Pakistan and its ?closest friend?.

China?s official Xinhua news agency said Kasuri told ambassador Zhang Chunxiang he felt sorry for the failure of the operation, but Zhang said Pakistan had tried its best. ?I want to tell you this will have no effect on our relations.?

A traditional ally of Pakistan, supplying it with arms and hundreds of millions of dollars in development finance, Beijing had urged Islamabad to do its utmost to rescue the engineers.

It was the second time this year Chinese workers have come to harm at the hands of militants opposed to Pakistan?s role in the US-led war on terror. In May, three technicians working on a port project were killed and nine wounded in a bomb attack in the southern Pakistani city of Gawadar.

The kidnappers were three Uzbeks and two militants from South Waziristan?s Mehsud tribe, a Pakistani security source said. They had been holed up with explosives strapped to their bodies in a mud house surrounded by security forces and their tribal allies in the Chagmalai area of South Waziristan.

Officials said the kidnappers had threatened to blow up themselves and their hostages if a rescue attempt was made.

Musharraf powers

Pakistan?s lower house of parliament passed a Bill today to allow President Pervez Musharraf to stay on as army chief despite his pledge to give up the job by the end of the year. The Bill called for the President to be allowed to hold two offices to enable the incumbent to continue the fight against terrorism.