They needed the government forces to retreat. It would be more effective to use the lives of the Chinese soldiers to threaten them.
It had been eight hours since the war in Yeni started. The government forces were already tired.
The NPFL militants were sneak attacked from the back by illegal armed forces. It was a perfect example of 'going out for wool only to come home shorn'. Instead, they were the first to retreat at around 11:00 pm.
NPFL's original plan was to hijack the Chinese engineers and force the Chinese peacekeeping forces, including the engineering soldiers, to withdraw from Yeni and the small town of Covil. Unexpectedly, before the plan could be carried out, they were forced to retreat by the illegal militants with heavy weapons.
In the end, the leader of the illegal militants led the way and kidnapped the Chinese engineers.
