The Lawspeaker
05-23-2009, 05:24 PM
French tourist kidnapped in Pakistan (http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2009/5/Pages/FrenchtouristkidnappedinPakistanpolice.aspx)
Gunmen kidnapped a French tourist in Pakistan on Saturday, snatching him from a group of compatriots, who included women and children, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.
The 41-year-old man was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baluch separatist groups and Islamist fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate, around 80 kilometres from the border with Afghanistan.
His abduction comes less than two months after an American UN official was released in Pakistan following a two-month hostage ordeal in Baluchistan that was claimed by a shadowy Baluch rebel group.
Six kidnappers armed with Kalashnikovs stopped the group of two men, two women and two children travelling by car near Landi, a small town around 200 kilometres east of the Iranian border, said police officer Merrullah.
The six tourists had left the provincial capital Quetta and were heading towards Iran, said Karar Shah, another police officer also from Dal Bandin, where the tourists alerted the Pakistani authorities to the abduction.
"The incident happened near Landi and the French told us six men armed with kalashnikovs stopped them and then one of them was taken away at gunpoint in a vehicle and drove off," Shah said.
The kidnappers ordered the rest of the party to continue their journey.
The latest Western abduction will raise further concerns about insecurity in Pakistan, battling a wave of deadly extremist Islamist violence and where the government was criticised over the beheading of a Polish hostage in February.
The tourists were travelling through terrain fraught with danger. In recent months they had been travelling through Iran, India and Pakistan, said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.
The February 2 kidnapping of John Solecki, who headed the UN refugee agency in Quetta, was the most high-profile Western kidnapping in Pakistan since US journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded by Al-Qaeda militants in 2002.
A shadowy organisation claiming to hold Solecki, the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), had threatened to kill him unless the government freed more than 1,100 "prisoners" but he was eventually relased unharmed on April 4.
Hundreds of people have died in Baluchistan, an oil and gas-rich province since late 2004, when rebels rose up to demand political autonomy and a greater share of profits from natural resources.
The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taliban militants.
Although kidnappings of foreigners in Baluchistan are rare, they have multiplied in northwest Pakistan, which also borders Afghanistan.
Gunmen kidnapped a French tourist in Pakistan on Saturday, snatching him from a group of compatriots, who included women and children, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.
The 41-year-old man was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baluch separatist groups and Islamist fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate, around 80 kilometres from the border with Afghanistan.
His abduction comes less than two months after an American UN official was released in Pakistan following a two-month hostage ordeal in Baluchistan that was claimed by a shadowy Baluch rebel group.
Six kidnappers armed with Kalashnikovs stopped the group of two men, two women and two children travelling by car near Landi, a small town around 200 kilometres east of the Iranian border, said police officer Merrullah.
The six tourists had left the provincial capital Quetta and were heading towards Iran, said Karar Shah, another police officer also from Dal Bandin, where the tourists alerted the Pakistani authorities to the abduction.
"The incident happened near Landi and the French told us six men armed with kalashnikovs stopped them and then one of them was taken away at gunpoint in a vehicle and drove off," Shah said.
The kidnappers ordered the rest of the party to continue their journey.
The latest Western abduction will raise further concerns about insecurity in Pakistan, battling a wave of deadly extremist Islamist violence and where the government was criticised over the beheading of a Polish hostage in February.
The tourists were travelling through terrain fraught with danger. In recent months they had been travelling through Iran, India and Pakistan, said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.
The February 2 kidnapping of John Solecki, who headed the UN refugee agency in Quetta, was the most high-profile Western kidnapping in Pakistan since US journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded by Al-Qaeda militants in 2002.
A shadowy organisation claiming to hold Solecki, the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), had threatened to kill him unless the government freed more than 1,100 "prisoners" but he was eventually relased unharmed on April 4.
Hundreds of people have died in Baluchistan, an oil and gas-rich province since late 2004, when rebels rose up to demand political autonomy and a greater share of profits from natural resources.
The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taliban militants.
Although kidnappings of foreigners in Baluchistan are rare, they have multiplied in northwest Pakistan, which also borders Afghanistan.