Balochistan: Criminals Behind Un Official Kidnapping: Police

QUETTA: Pakistani police and intelligence agents were scrambling Monday to piece together information about a hitherto unheard of insurgent group that has claimed the kidnapping of an American UN official.

'This appears to be a criminal gang... kidnapping for ransom,' a senior police investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.
'We did not hear about it before and are gathering information about its origin,' he added.
Another security official confirmed the same line of investigation.
John Solecki, head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in the Baluchistan provincial capital Quetta, was abducted at gunpoint and his driver killed when his UN vehicle was ambushed last Monday.
'We have abducted John Solecki. We have taken this step to seek the world's attention towards the excesses being inflicted on (the) Baluch Nation,' a spokesman for the Baluch United Liberation Front said in a call on Saturday to a media organisation.
The caller, who identified himself as Shahak Khan, told the Online news agency that the group wanted Washington to use its influence on Pakistan to press for political and economic rights for the people of the region.
The was no word from either group on the emergence of the apparent new organisation.
A raid on an house near the town of Qilla Abdullah, 70 kilometres northwest of Quetta, on Sunday revealed nothing after the house was found to be empty, the police official said.
Police are also searching for a white Cuore car used in the kidnapping with a reward of 200,000 rupees (2,500 dollars) posted for information about the vehicle, he said.
Pakistan has already offered a reward of one million rupees for information leading to Solecki's rescue.

Monday, 09 Feb, 2009 | 05:48 PM PST |

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