Seven Pakistanis kidnapped in Afghanistan
Engineers and workers in Logar province were returning to their accommodation after work.
PULI ALAM:
Seven Pakistani workers were kidnapped near Kabul, the police said on Thursday.
The victims - engineers and workers assigned to a hospital construction project in Logar province - were returning to their accommodation after work when they were abducted at gunpoint.
“They were going home from work. Along the road, their minivan was stopped by unidentified gunmen, their driver was forced out of the car and they were taken to an undisclosed location,” Logar police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwani said.
The abduction comes as Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan and the United States are at an all-time low after cross-border Nato airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani troops on Saturday.
“We’ve launched a search operation. We hope to find them and free them very soon,” said Roghliwani.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction but the police said the kidnapping might have been carried out by “criminal gangs” seeking a ransom.
The Taliban were not immediately contactable for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.
Seven Pakistani workers were kidnapped near Kabul, the police said on Thursday.
The victims - engineers and workers assigned to a hospital construction project in Logar province - were returning to their accommodation after work when they were abducted at gunpoint.
“They were going home from work. Along the road, their minivan was stopped by unidentified gunmen, their driver was forced out of the car and they were taken to an undisclosed location,” Logar police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwani said.
The abduction comes as Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan and the United States are at an all-time low after cross-border Nato airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani troops on Saturday.
“We’ve launched a search operation. We hope to find them and free them very soon,” said Roghliwani.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction but the police said the kidnapping might have been carried out by “criminal gangs” seeking a ransom.
The Taliban were not immediately contactable for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.