ISLAMABAD: Intelligence agencies have rescued a Chinese tourist kidnapped last year in an area close to insurgency-prone regions, it was announced today.

The unidentified man was abducted in May last year from Daraban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the border with Baluchistan province and the South Waziristan tribal district, both of which are rife with insurgents.

“The Chinese tourist was recovered on Saturday night after a successful operation and is to be handed over to the Chinese embassy in Islamabad anytime soon,” Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference in Islamabad, without giving details.

Officials said the man was apparently travelling through the area by bicycle when he was seized last year. A faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had said it was behind the abduction.

But Khan did not disclose from where and under what circumstances the tourist was rescued. However, a video released by militants in May this year had purported to show a Chinese tourist kidnapped by Taliban-allied fighters a year ago asking for his government to help him be released.

China is one of Pakistan's main allies, investing billions of dollars in infrastructure projects including nuclear power plants, dams and roads.