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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistain: Fears for olecki after new death threat |
| 2009-03-03 |
| (AKI) - There are renewed fears for the safety of United Nations worker John Solecki after the separatist group suspected of kidnapping him in Pakistan issued a new threat on his life. A letter believed to have been sent by the Baluchistan Liberation United Front on Sunday threatened to kill Solecki within four days if the Pakistani government does not release more than 1,000 prisoners. According to Pakistani channel, Geo News, the threat on the American's life was issued in a letter sent to local news agency Online International News Network. UN spokeswoman Maki Shinohara said the world body was aware of the threat through the media and was taking it seriously. Solecki, the head of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Quetta, disappeared a month ago in Baluchistan, one of Pakistan's four provinces, which has been the target of a militant insurgency for several years. Gunmen abducted him on 2 February after killing his driver as the pair drove to work in the southwestern city of Quetta. The previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. In the letter sent on Sunday, the front demanded the release of 1,109 activists from Baluchi nationalist groups it claimed had been arrested by the government. "John Solecki's mother and his relatives and international human rights groups should play a role for the recovery of thousands of our sons ... who are in state-run torture detention cells," the one-page letter said. "The United Nations and state institutions ... are forcing us to kill Mr. John Solecki in our protest,'' it said. On 13 February, the group threatened to kill Solecki within three days unless similar demands were met. It did not carry out the threat. Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment. Violent separatist groups have waged a long campaign for independence in Baluchistan, a natural gas-rich region that borders Afghanistan and Iran. Last month, militants beheaded a Polish geologist abducted in another border area of Pakistan after the government did not respond to demands for a prisoner release. Afghanistan's ambassador-designate, an Iranian diplomat and a Chinese telecommunications engineer were recently seized in or near the main northwestern city of Peshawar and are still missing. |
| Posted by:Fred |