Peshawar, Feb. 16: Pakistan has unchained several Taliban prisoners in exchange for the Chinese telecommunications engineer, Long Xiaowei.

According to sources, Pakistani authorities have swapped Xiaowe for more than a dozen Taliban prisoners in a secret deal.

"Yes, a number of militants were freed to secure the release of the Chinese engineer," The News quoted a top official, as saying.

He (official) however, declined to disclose the exact number of militants set-free in the deal.

Long Xiaowei alongwith his colleague Zhuang Guo were abducted by the Taliban from Khal town of Lower Dir district in August last year. Later Guo succeeded in escaping from militant's clutches.

The Pakistan government has been under immense pressure from Beijing to act after the beheading of a Polish geologist, Piotr Stanczak, by the Taliban.

The exchange of terrorists for securing the engineer's release is seen as a very important step in view of Pakistan President Zardari's forthcomimg visit to China.

Sources said that Zardari is expected to take Xiaowei along with himself to China.

Earlier, efforts for the release of the abducted Chinese engineer had failed , as the Pak government turned downed the demand of the militants to free 136 Taliban prisoners, besides other demands. (ANI)