Chagmalai, Pakistan ? Pakistani special forces attacked kidnappers holding two Chinese engineers near the Afghan border on Thursday, killing all five of the al-Qaida-linked militants, who were followers of a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. One of the hostages was killed in the raid, while the other survived.

Security forces later launched a manhunt for the militants’ leader, Abdullah Mehsud, who was believed hiding in mountains while his men held the hostages for six days in the nearby village of Chagmalai, officials said.

Commandos raided a house where the militants were keeping the hostages after shots were heard coming from inside, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

“This raised fears that the kidnappers had started violence against the Chinese,” he said. “The security forces then stormed and killed all five kidnappers and freed the Chinese.”

However, resident Abid Mehsud said dozens of special forces soldiers, disguised as local tribesmen, surrounded the mud-brick house and opened fire when three of the kidnappers came outside to talk on a two-way radio.

The troops then lobbed a tear gas grenade into the house and one of the Chinese hostages ran out and made it to safety. The two surviving militants then emerged, holding the other Chinese man in front of them.

“The troops fired at them and they all fell to the ground,” Mehsud said, though he added it was not clear whether the soldiers’ fire had killed the hostage, or whether the militants had shot him.

Ahmed said the kidnappers had shot the Chinese man, Wang Peng.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said the survivor, Wang Ende, was taken to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad.

Mehsud, 28, returned to Pakistan in March after about two years’ detention at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Pakistan officials say he has forged ties with al-Qaida since then.