BOSSASO, Somalia, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A Pakistani national kidnapped in the semiautonomous region of Puntland on Sunday in north Somalia was released by the captors without the payment of ransom, officials said Monday.

    The hostage was set free by his captors after local elders and officials persuaded the abductors to release the hostage without taking any ransom payment, Ali Mohamed Gurxan, Mayor of the town of Galgala in Bari Province in Puntland, confirmed to Xinhua.

    Gunmen seize the Pakistani man, who worked in a farming project in the region, as he headed to his place of work and took him to the mountainous area in Galgala town, 50 km south of Bossaso, the commercial capital of the region, which is known for rampant kidnapping of foreigners and as the hotbed for piracy.

    A British and a Spanish journalists were abducted by local gunmen and were released after nearly several weeks in captivity in the area late last year.

    There are two foreign journalists, a Canadian and an Australian, still being held hostage by gunmen in the south of the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.