Gunmen Kidnap 8 Pakistanis Working for U.S. Charity
Gunmen have kidnapped eight local staff working for a U.S. charity near the Afghan border in southwest Pakistan, which is rife with insurgency and sectarian violence, officials said Tuesday.
Government officials said the American Refugee Committee (ARC) workers were kidnapped on Monday in Pishin district, about 50 kilometers north of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
"All of them are Pakistani employees of the American NGO. We have launched an operation to trace them," Abdul Mansoor, deputy Pishin district commissioner, told Agence France Presse by telephone.
"They were coming back after distributing food at an Afghan refugee camp. Their vehicle was intercepted and they were kidnapped at gunpoint. Their vehicle was also taken," Mansoor said.
Officials said they feared the kidnappers may have moved the hostages to the mountainous area along the Afghan border, about 30 kilometers away.
A local ARC official confirmed the kidnapping, but refused to speak on the record or provide further details.
According to its website, ARC has been working in Afghan refugee camps near Quetta since 2002, providing health care to 101,000 Afghans, and has helped 156,000 people affected by flooding in Pakistan.
Kidnappings are a plague in parts of Baluchistan and northwest Pakistan, where criminals looking for ransom snatch foreigners and locals, sometimes passing their hostages onto Taliban and al-Qaida-linked groups.
On Sunday, tribal rebels kidnapped five government officials working for the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation in Baluchistan's Sorange district.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility, saying the kidnapping was in retaliation for fresh military operations.
On July 1, a Swiss couple on holiday were also kidnapped in Baluchistan after driving into Pakistan from India, possibly en route to Iran.
Local officials fear they may have since been smuggled into the lawless tribal belt in northwest Pakistan, a notorious haven for Taliban and al-Qaida.
Baluchistan has seen a recent surge in violence, linked to a separatist insurgency, sectarian violence and Taliban militants.
Local rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural oil, gas and mineral resources.
Source: Agence France Presse
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