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UNHCR official Solecki released in Quetta: UN, police
 [Geo News] An American UN official kidnapped in Pakistan has been released tired but apparently safe and well following a two-month hostage ordeal, UN and Pakistani officials said Sunday. John Solecki, the local head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), had been snatched at gunpoint in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, on February 2. His driver was killed during the abduction. It was the most high-profile Western kidnapping in Pakistan since 2002, when US journalist Daniel Pearl was snatched and beheaded by Al-Qaeda militants. ŽŽI can confirm that he has been released. He has been released about 50 kilometres (32 miles) south of Quetta,ŽŽ UN spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told media by telephone. ŽŽHe is tired but he seems okay,ŽŽ she added. ŽŽA UN team has met him. He seems all right. The priority will be to get him medical attention,ŽŽ the UN spokesperson said. Interior ministry chief, Rehman Malik, confirmed the officialŽŽs release after an ordeal lasting nearly nine weeks, and said preparations were being made to reunite him with his family as quickly as possible. ŽŽHe has been found. He will be examined in a combined military hospital,ŽŽ Malik told the private Geo television station in a telephone interview. ŽŽWe are making arrangements so that he can reunite him and his family as soon as possible,ŽŽ he added. SoleckiŽŽs 83-year-old mother had urged the Pakistani public to help secure her sonŽŽs release in an audio message released in February, saying that she and her 91-year-old husband had visited their sonŽŽs friends in Baluchistan. Baluchistan police chief Asif Nawaz Janjua told media Solecki had been found ŽŽsafe and soundŽŽ. The details surrounding his release were not immediately clear and neither did Solecki appear in public. 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 ŽŽprisonersŽŽ but numerous deadlines came and went. The United Nations frequently expressed concern about Solecki, who was in poor health, appealing for him to receive immediate professional medical care and expressing their willingness to speak directly to his captors. A grainy video released by the kidnappers and shown on Pakistani television channels in February showed a blindfolded Solecki appealing for his release. His safety is a welcome piece of good news for the beleaguered government in Pakistan, battling a wave of deadly extremist Islamist violence and which was criticised by Poland over the beheading of a Polish hostage in February. Pakistan has condemned the kidnapping as a ŽŽdastardly terrorist actŽŽ and offered a reward of one million rupees (12,610 dollars) for information leading to SoleckiŽŽs rescue. Posted by: Fred 2009-04-05 |
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