BEIJING, Nov 19 – China voiced “great shock” about a report saying a Chinese hostage held by the Islamic State (IS) had been killed, saying the report need to be further verified. Islamic State said in the latest edition of its English language magazine on Wednesday that it had killed a Chinese and a Norwegian captive, showing what appeared to be pictures of the dead men under a banner reading “Executed”.
“The Chinese side noticed the report and was greatly shocked. The Chinese government had been trying to rescue the hostage with all-out efforts since the kidnapping happened,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei in a press release, adding the information need to be further verified.
Earlier in September, the IS said it had captured a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage, who were identified by IS’s English-language magazine Dabiq as Fan Jinghui, a freelance consultant from China, and Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad from Norway. The group did not specify when or where the two had been captured.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry also said then that the description given by the IS about Fan matches a Chinese missing abroad, adding that China is firmly opposed to violence against innocent civilians. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
In the previous issue of the magazine, Dabiq, Islamic State showed pictures of two men who it said were Norwegian and Chinese, wearing yellow suits and with shaved heads. It said their governments had “abandoned” them, but that they were “for sale” and ransom payments could secure their release.
It identified the Chinese man as Fan Jinghui and said he was a 50-year-old freelance consultant from Beijing. It identified Grimsgaard-Ofstad as a candidate for a masters degree in political science born in 1967. In its latest issue, it did not give any details about how, when or where they were killed. The magazine also carried a photo of what it said was the improvised bomb that brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last month, killing all 224 people on board.
