ISLAMABAD: A Chinese tourist who was kidnapped in Pakistan by the Taliban more than a year ago has been freed, Pakistan's interior minister said on Sunday. "He was handed over to us late last night ... Today, after a while, maybe after one or one-and-a-half hours, we will hand him over to the Chinese embassy," Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters. The Chinese man, who had been cycling through Pakistan, was abducted in last May near the western city of Dera Ismail Khan. A senior Pakistani

Taliban commander, Abdullah Bahar, told Reuters soon after the kidnapping that the man was in the Islamist militants' custody. Khan gave few details about the Chinese man's

recovery other than saying it was the result of an intelligence operation and the culmination of more than a year of effort by the Pakistani government.