Hostage 'smeared with blood'
In the "huh?" department. Weird.
Islamabad - Pakistan protested to India on Wednesday after the son of a Pakistani embassy worker in India was said to have been kidnapped and bizarrely photographed with three corpses before being released.
Roshan Ali, 19, was abducted and harassed by unidentified attackers in the Indian capital New Delhi on Tuesday, said Pakistan's foreign ministry.
Pakistan summoned India's acting high commissioner in Islamabad to the foreign office and a "strong protest was lodged with him condemning the premeditated and cowardly act", the ministry added.
While he was detained at an unknown location, the teenager's hands were "smeared with the fresh blood of three dead bodies lying in the room," said the ministry.
"He was forced to hold a large bloodstained knife in his hands and to stand next to the dead bodies. He was then photographed in various poses with the dead bodies," it added.
Investigation launched
Ali's attackers stuffed a threatening hand-written note addressed to his father into his pocket and then took all his belongings before throwing him out of a vehicle after midnight, the ministry said.
The note was addressed to his father and said the teenager "should be taken out of Delhi within five days because the abductors had photographs that could send him to the gallows", the ministry added.
The Pakistani foreign ministry had asked India to carry out an investigation and to ensure that "deplorable" incidents of its kind did not happen again.
It said the Indian diplomat had "expressed regrets over the unfortunate incident and assured that an investigation would be undertaken and the results shared with Pakistan".
Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan launched a peace process in January 2004 - restoring diplomatic ties which were cut after the two countries came to the brink of war over the divided region of Kashmir in 2002.
But the rapprochement remains fragile despite recent peace moves including the opening of crossing points for earthquake relief on the military frontier in Kashmir.
Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-11-09 |