CAIRO: Kidnappers freed Egyptian police and soldiers in the Sinai yesterday, as President Mohammed Mursi vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice and appealed to residents of the lawless peninsula to disarm.
The conscripts, seized at gunpoint last week as they were returning from a leave of absence, arrived in Cairo following a joint army and police sweep of the Sinai that triggered their release, the army said.
The three policemen and four soldiers saluted and embraced Mursi as they stepped out of the plane that flew them to the capital, in a ceremony attended by dozens of senior officials.
“The criminals must be brought to justice. Those who violate the law must be held accountable. The law will prevail,” Mursi said in a statement aired on state television after the ceremony.
Presidential spokesman Ihab Fahmy later told a press conference that there were “no concessions nor negotiations” to secure the hostages’ release.
Military spokesman Ahmed Aly said “an important reason behind the success of the operation... was a military intelligence plan of strategic deception and media control.”
Intelligence “deliberately broadcast conflicting reports on the course of military operations in the Sinai to confound the kidnappers,” the official MENA news agency quoted him as saying.
But a Bedouin source close to talks between tribal mediators and the kidnappers said the hostages were released after the kidnappers received assurances they would not be pursued.
A hive of militant activity, Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is a major route for drugs smuggling and human trafficking.
Ever since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011, throwing his feared security services into disarray, the region has grown even more restless and awash with weapons.
Mursi appealed to residents to hand in their arms.
“Weapons should only be with the authorities. Weapons should only be with the state. Those who have weapons should hand them in,” he said.
Mursi said developing the Sinai was a top priority, stressing his eagerness to see residents achieve “their full rights... like the rest of Egyptians”.
Bedouin activists have long complained of the government’s neglect of the region, saying they have been treated as second-class citizens ever since Israel handed back the peninsula it had seized in the 1967 Middle East war. AFP
